determined to prove a point. Swedish double bass player Vilhelm Bromander, known from Jonas Kullhammar’s The New Kids On The Rock quartet and the more experimental The Ägg, as well as his collaborations with pianists Sten Sandell and Klas Nervin, wanted to stress that what may be considered as seemingly static soundscapes can spread out and gives an illusion of their own sonic materiality.

Bromander debut solo album «Oh lord give me strange» offers two minimalistic pieces, almost static ones, but there is always a subtle development, a nuanced, new layer of tones and overtones that emerge or resonance of the disciplined, tranquil flow of sounds that gets richer, varied and deeper. Bromander not only explores his bull fiddle and its wide spectrum of sonorities with an impressive array of extended bowing techniques but also suggests a new way of listening to music.

The two pieces progress patiently with small, often by-passed , aural and physical details like sub-harmonic interference, vibration, multiphonics and noise. «Ten Variations of D» is more meditative and monolithic, exploring a single tone with minimal variations, while the shorter «Oaktree» is more dynamic and explores different and often noisy aspects of the bass strings timbral spectrum. Still, the accumulated effect of this arresting journey into these deep-tones sounds is enlightening. The sound of the double bass becomes tangible, almost like a elastic entity that the artist can mutate and manipulate without harming its beautiful essence. Time is of no essence here, as if the music is played in a new, untimely and a strange, dream-state dimension.

Eyal Hareuveni

Vilhelm Bromander (b)