Friends & Neighbors - What’s Next (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2018)

When a story is good and the following one is even better you naturally expect that new narratives coming next will explode your expectations, and here it is, with a title saying it all about what you’ll find inside: “What’s Next”. And what you’ll find inside is one more aspect of a huge field of possibilities when dealing with the «neo-New Thing sensation», an expression used by the magazine Downbeat to describe what is at stake in a Friends & Neighbors record: a recriation of the free jazz spirit of the Sixties and Seventies, going from Ornette Coleman to John Carter, through Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders, but with a perspective very much of the present times (at the end of the second decade of the 21st century is obvious we love melodies, and that’s what you have here: melodic free jazz) and a playing style with all the characteristics of Norwegian jazz. If you know the subgenre you’re certainly aware that free jazz is many different things, so André Roligheten, Thomas Johansson, Oscar Gronberg, Jon Rune Strom and Tollef Ostvang have a wide variety of references to tell their stories, keeping them fresh and surprising, despite all the weight of history. Yes, the Old New Thing is a New New Thing again with these five brilliant and incredibly imaginative cultural recyclers.

André Roligheten  tenor saxophone and bass clarinet

Thomas Johansson  trumpet

Oscar Grönberg  piano

Jon Rune Strøm  double bass

Tollef Østvang  drums

Tracks 1, 4, 5 and 8 by André Roligheten (TONO/NCB) | Track 2 by Jon Rune Strøm (TONO/NCB) | Tracks 3, 6 and 7 by Oscar Grönberg (TONO/NCB)

Recorded February 8th and 9th, 2018 by Dag Erik Johansen and Kai Andersen at Athletic Sound, Halden, Norway | Mixed by Ingar Hunskaar, Oslo, Norway | Mastered by Fridtjof Lindeman at Strype Audio, Oslo, Norway

Produced by Friends & Neighbors | Executive production by Trem Azul | Design by Travassos

Jon Rune Strøm Quintet - Fragments (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2018)

Yes, you can create a band concept from the double bass position, but instead of putting himself as the focus of the collective music of his quintet, bassist and composer Jon Rune Strøm enlisted a second bass player, Christian Meaas Svendsen, for the group, like him doubling the upright instrument with an electric one. Which means that the idea is on the sound, not the personality. And the choice of companion explains much of what we find in “Fragments”. If Strøm is known for his incredible energy and physicality, Svendsen is a force of nature, sometimes using two or three bows or performing with arms, legs, feet and mouth. The center of gravity of the music is low, but the two horns manage to take it to the highest levels possible, namely trumpeter Thomas Johansson and tenor saxophonist André Roligheten, with drummer Andreas Wildhagen gluing it all and covering the fortuitous gaps like an octopus. That’s what differenciates the Jon Rune Strøm Quintet from all the other bands including Strøm’s contribution, namely Friends & Neighbors, All Included, Universal Indians and Frode Gjerstad Trio. The project belongs to the same family tree, call it free music or free jazz as you wish, but there’s something else going on. Bass-driven pleasure in its purist form, that is.

Thomas Johansson: trumpet

André Roligheten: tenor saxophone

Christian Meaas Svendsen: double bass, fender bass [left channel]

Jon Rune Strøm: double bass, fender bass [right channel]

Andreas Wildhagen: drums

All music by Jon Rune Strøm (Tono)

Recorded by Christian Obermayer at Victoria, Nasjonal Jazzscene, March 2017 | Mixed by Obermayer at Strype Audio, Oslo, September 2017 | Mastered by Obermayer and Strøm at Strype Audio, Oslo, November 2017

Produced by Jon Rune Strøm | Co produced by Pedro Costa at Clean Feed | Design by Travassos | Picture by Petra Cvelbar | Painting by Jon Rune Strøm