The Swedish, Gothenburg-based Trio Ramberget – trombonist Gustav Davidsson, double bass player Johanna Ekholm and bas clarinetist Pelle Westlin, was formed on 2016 and matches acoustic ambient music with free improvisation. Drone Positions is the fourth full-length album of the trio and the ninth release of it since 2016.
In early 2023, Trio Ramberget asked six of its favorite, creative musicians-composers – pianist Matti Bye, prepared square pianist Karin Johansson, singer-songwriter-guitarist Malin Wättring, vibes player Mattias Ståhl, pianist-vocalist Sara Aldén and electronics player Anton Jonsson – to do anything they liked with a drone the trio provided them with. The result became Drone Positions and the trio added another, seventh piece, completely of its own.
Trio Ramberget offers a subtle, ethereal drone for the guest musicians, allowing all to alter and shape it as they want. Bye’s «Just innan gryningen» (Just before dawn) is faithful to the ambient essence of Trio Ramberget but introduces a melancholic-cinematic aroma. Johansson’s «Vapor» adds exotic and resonating, percussive koto-like sounds to the soft hum of Trio Ramberget and suggests an untimely and borderless ritual. Wättring’s «You Are My Forever» charges the delicate drone of Trio Ramberget with a powerful and passionate song about love empowerment, reflecting her experience as a mother, with a raw, distorted electric guitar. Ståhl’s «Looking Forward» adds a playful, melodic melody that corresponds gently with the drone of Trio Ramberget. Aldén’s «Låt oss aldrig/Bön 2020» (Let’s never/Prayer 2020) transforms the drone into an emotional ballad, sung in Swedish. Jonsson’s «Kassett» employs his tape deck and loops in order to layer and color the drone of Trio Ramberget with unpredictable and elusive sounds, but it is the only piece that dives deep into the ambient universe of the trio. Trio Ramberget concludes this fascinating and thoughtful album with «Exit», its version of the melancholic and ethereal drone that motivated the six guest musicians to create their own reflections of it.
Eyal Hareuveni
Gustav Davidsson (trombone), Johanna Ekholm (double bass), Pelle Westlin (bass clarinet), Matti Bye (piano), Karin Johansson (prepared square piano), Malin Wättring (guitar, vocals), Mattias Ståhl (vibraphone), Sara Aldén (piano, vocals), Anton Jonsson (tape deck, loop)
