Osgood/Emmeluth - Vandtårnet (CD)

This is the second edition in Motvind Records' series for the spontaneous, plastic music. Plasticity is about being shaped, modeled or bent without breaking. Several of our favorite musicians work on this on a daily basis! Alone and sometimes together in groups of people with the same blessed interest, they explore how their musical whims can form a greater whole. With rhythmic roars we want to celebrate these experiments, and our tactic is to do so by releasing CDs with the best we can in of recordings by young and old players.

This time there are two Danish improvisers we have had the pleasure of hearing. Oslo-based Signe Krunderup Emmeluth has previously released albums both with her own Spacemusic Ensemble and as part of the Andreas Røysum Ensemble here at Motvind Records. Kresten Osgood represents the jazz metropolis Copenhagen and does not need any further introduction. Let us rather hear what the ever-grooving jazz legend says himself, when he in his genuine liner notes touches on the theme of why our foot tends to swing when we hear Kresten swing:

The deeper I get into rhythm the more I realize that it's multidimensional.
At first my relationship with rhythm was mostly two dimensional..metric..the perfect groove or succession of beats.
Then it became three dimensional. polyrhythmic beyond measure. rhythmic without metrics
Now I realize it's like a time machine. really understanding form. ancient to the future and being in the present.

The CD that has now been printed consists of recordings from a concert the two held in the venue Koncertkirken at Blågårds Plads in Copenhagen in the summer of 2020. We hear three numbers, the first emphasizes tightly woven, rhythmic interplay between saxophone and drums. The musicians channel various traditions from the jazz history. On track number two, one can hear Osgood running to the piano for a longer sequence where the drummer seizes the opportunity to express more of his harmonic ideas. This ends with a hesitant cascade in minor mode that evokes feelings not different from those the Master musicians of Joujouka are known to bring out. The third and final cut on the album grows from a calm meditation to a quacking part where Emmeluth once again shows assertiveness and technical surplus in her playing. With a brilliant saxophonist and an inventive drummer, this is a record that you can dig!

An important parameter in this music is presence. The immediate closeness that the musicians have to their own intuition has a direct effect on the listener and gives him a feeling of taking part in something. Furthermore, the attention that the listener gives the music takes the musicians to a new level. When time, space, musicians and listeners are in a balanced relationship with each other, magical moments arise. These moments exist in the presence of the listener.

Catalogue number: MOT9CD
Release date: February 12, 2021

Signe Emmeluth - saxophone
Kresten Osgood - drums / piano / objects
Recorded at Koncertkirken in Copenhagen, 20 July 2020 by Niklas Fite
Mixed and mastered by Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard
Front drawings by Fredrick Arnøy
Photography by Jan Granli
Graphic design by Maja Wilhite-Hannisdal