Trio Ramberget is a Swedish, Gothenburg-based experimental, free-improv trio with unconventional acoustic instrumentation – trombonist Gustav Davidsson (who is also a pianist), double bass player Johanna Ekholm, and bass clarinetist Pelle Westlin (of the free jazz quartet Westlin Tontin, and co-leader of Stockholm Improvisers Orchestra). The self-titled album is the trio’s sixth full-length, self-released album since its formation in 2016, and it was recorded within a big steel chamber of the oil cistern during the Nonagon Festival on the island Svanö, in the northern part of Sweden, in July 2024.
The album offers a six-movement, deep-toned, meditative-drone suite, employing the organic, sustained reverberation of the space – up to 25 seconds – as a fourth player. Davidsson (who mixed and mastered the album), Ekholm, and Westlin patiently and methodically study the sonic qualities of this unique space and its long resonances, adapting their own dark, minimalist yet exploratory and thoughtful sonic palettes to it. The snowy cover photo of Veronica Eriksson faithfully captures the album’s atmosphere.
The outcome is a highly immersive, mysterious, and surprisingly melancholic suite that blurs the distinction between ambient, minimalism, sound art, free improvisation, and contemporary chamber music. This suite highlights Trio Ramberget’s collective sound and the trio’s captivating emotional presence within its minimalist yet nuanced music.
Eyal Hareuveni
Gustav Davidsson (trombone), Johanna Ekholm (double bass), Pelle Westlin (bass clarinet, vocals)
