In this forever unfolding moment documents Swedish double bass player-composer Vilhelm Bromander’s new, 13-piece ensemble featuring some of the best of Stockholm’s improvisers. The album is a three-movement, spiritual-mysterious suite, «full of hope, care and resistance», and suggests updated perspectives to ideas developed back in the 1960s and 1970s by some of Bromander’s seminal heroes: Ornette Coleman, John and Alice Coltrane, Don Cherry and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra. The album was recorded at Atlantis Grammofon in October 2021
Each of the three movements evokes different modalities while cumulatively carving out a consistent warmth and emotional impact. The first, title piece corresponds openly with the meditative, spiritual jazz of John and Alice Coltrane. It is structured like the opening part in an Indian raga, the alap, introduced with the otherworldly voice of dhrupad singer Marianne Svasěk (who teaches Bromander this ancient musical tradition) and gently gravitating into an engaging sonic communion with the like-minded improvisers exploring eternal questions. Bromander says that in his studies of the dhrupad singing, he experienced a note as an evolving universe of dancing harmonics and resonances, where every breath makes the connection to his body and mind deeper. This experience is reflected in this hypnotic movement that blurs the boundaries between pure sound exploration, free improvisation, and composition, with great solos of reedists Martin Küchen and trumpeter Emil Strandberg.
The poetic second movement «Låt våra tårar bli våra vapen» (Let our tears be our weapons, in Swedish) has slow burn dynamics with Bromander’s bass line has a chorale-like churn that carries whisps of Ornette Coleman’s iconic «Lonely Woman». Bromander structured this movement as a hymn advocating gentleness, evoking the sound of righteous struggle celebrated in Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, where beauty ripples amid exquisite tension. The propulsive energy of Bromander, vibes player Mattias Ståhl and drummers Dennis Egberth and Anton Jonsson encourage the potent solos by tenor sax player Elin Forkelid and baritone sax player Pinton. In the third and last movement, the lyrical and moving in «Blommor och bröd» (Flowers and bread) Bromander celebrates the human need for nourishment, both spiritual and nutritional, espoused by Swedish socialist agitator Kata Dalström (1858-1923), and this piece is concluded with a magnificent bass clarinet solo of Bothén.
In this forever unfolding moment offers beautiful and soulful, nourishing music.
Eyal Hareuveni
Vilhelm Bromander (double bass), Katt Hernandez (violin), Martin Küchen (alto saxophone, sopranino saxophone), Elin Forkelid (tenor saxophone), Alberto Pinton (baritone saxophone), Christer Bothén (bass clarinet), Emil Strandberg (trumpet), Mats Äleklint (trombone), Alex Zethson (piano), Mattias Ståhl (vibraphone), Dennis Egberth (drums), Anton Jonsson (drums), Marianne Svašek (vocals, tanpura)
