solo |cs177

Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø est un jeune improvisateur norvégien qui collabore parfois avec Kim Myhr, et avec de grands ensembles d'improvisation libre, quelques groupes de free jazz ou de musique contemporaine et/ou expérimentale. Pour Creative Sources, il propose un exercice peut-être aussi difficile que rare et donc, original, un solo de trombone. Pour ma part, je trouve que ce Solo tombe très bien, car ce cuivre fait partie de ces instruments magnifiques qui tombent quelque peu en désuétude.

Tout d'abord, il y a eu Roswell Rudd, puis George Lewis, et enfin (et surtout), Albert Mangelsdorff, sans parler de Radu Malfatti. HMN arrive donc avec des précédents assez lourds de talent et de virtuosité, mais il n'y en a pas non plus une pléiade, sans compter que rares sont ceux qui se sont essayés à l'improvisation en solo. Car le Solo de ce jeune musicien part avant tout de l'improvisation, même s'il n'hésite pas à composer quelques lignes mélodiques distribuées parcimonieusement tout au long de ces dix pièces assez courtes. L'instinct, le corps et la spontanéité semblent guider la structure et la forme de ces pièces. Mais il y a aussi une direction très aventureuse, qui place HMN à la croisée du free jazz et du réductionnisme, car entre les mélodies le tromboniste explore de nombreux modes de jeux et différentes techniques étendues. Le cuivre se trouve exalté d'un côté, toute sa solennité traditionnelle et sa puissance sonore et émotionnelle sont constamment sollicitées par Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø, mais il se trouve également transcendé, ou plutôt transfiguré. Le son est transformé par la voix, la langue gêne l'embouchure, le souffle et d'autres "imperfections" sont également sollicités, la matière du cuivre conduit la voix, les pistons claquent, les attaques sont exacerbées, autant de techniques qui rappellent les expérimentations de la scène réductionniste, sauf qu'elles sont ici au service d'une énergie concrète et brute. Car HMN n'étale pas ses compétences techniques pour produire les textures les plus originales possibles, la technique est avant tout un moyen pour parvenir à une certaine dynamique, entre la mélodie primitive et une musique organique, qui provient avant tout du corps même du musicien.

Voilà à peu près ce qui fait de ce Solo une oeuvre personnelle et originale, qui touche au corps de l'instrumentiste plus qu'à son intelligence, à son intimité sans verser dans une introspection abstraite. Les dix pièces sont variées et virtuoses bien sûr, mais elles possèdent chacune leur univers qui n'est pas autonomisé, mais qui paraît au contraire sortir tout droit du corps de HMN. Les techniques étendues sont multiples et variées, mais pas gratuites, elles servent toujours une dynamique particulière et souhaitée par le tromboniste. En gros, on a ici un solo particulièrement intense, qui peut être aussi bien dansant qu'envoûtant, avec des pièces variées autant au niveau sonore qu'au niveau dynamique. Après un aussi bon début, j'attends avec impatience les prochains enregistrements de ce talentueux tromboniste du coup. hjulien (ImprovSphere)

Tio soloimprovisationer med fett sound och stor teknik kopplar upp oss med den gamla fina trombonskolan, där läpparna talar och en lur är en lur. Det är både svettigt och vackert.
Norske trombonisten Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø tar sig före att presentera tio stycken ganska fria improvisationer. Numer har vi vant oss vid att soloplattor är ett ljudäventyr, där kartan inte längre stämmer. En gitarr är inte längre en gitarr, en trumpet kan låta som en bandkomposition och så vidare.
Men långt innan dess fanns det ett slags individualistisk frihetsrörelse inom jazzen. Många musiker bröt sig ur gruppens normer. De avskaffade trumslagaren till exempel, eller satsade på ett slags kollektivism, men de djärvaste blev sina egna kollektiv av ljud.
Det var inte längre bara pianister som fick sola sig i individualismens uppmärksamhet. En Jimmy Giuffre eller en Sonny Rollins tog för sig solo. Och skrev historia. Sedan blev på något vis alla instrument individuella solister. Under 1960-talets hektiska experimenterande glänste trombonisterna. Roswell Rudd fläskade på som ett anarkistiskt barnbarn till Kid Ory. Albert Mangelsdorff lät som hur många som helst på samma gång, där han drev de virtuosa boptraditionerna in i en speciell europeisk fåra. Och i Sverige hade vi Eje Thelin med en rasande teknik, som under några dynamiska år i mitten av 60-talet visade vad instrumentet förmådde av transdans.
Det var en lång inledning till detta soloalbum. Men i den här traditionen rör han sig, Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø, då han tar oss i handen och leder oss ut i sitt landskap. Anslaget är först närmast som en koral. Sjungande, nynnande. Han skulle ha kunnat spela med Arne Domnerus,
tänker jag först. Men sedan släpper han in andra ljud, biljud och gurglanden, som smittar ner det helgjutna. Snart vänjer jag mig vid hur han blandar ett närmast triumfatoriskt sound med mer inåtvända tricks med mycket smak av 70-talsimpro. Metallen klingar med, biljud surrar. Men han är ändå en konturernas man, en klassiker, som hela tiden har instrumentets kropp i fokus. Till det intrycket bidrar de korta, ganska strikta improvisationerna, som alla har en fast form och som också kopplar i varandra som i en svit.
Jag gillar när han stannar upp och begrundar ljud, spänningar, glidningar och struntar i effekter. Den där obönhörliga inre rörelseriktningen har han gemensam med Mangelsdorff. Det betyder att jag upplever en stark jazzig uppfattning, trots att många av artens karakteristika döljs; men beat, rytm, melodik känns som underförstådda element hela tiden.
Skivan slutar som den börjar med att Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø sjunger sitt allra innerligaste minne från oss, och det låter som en stilla koral eller psalm. Det är en mycket vacker skiva. Soundofmusic

The twenty-five years old Norwegian trombonist seems to be a very promising talent from the Nordic avant-garde scene, active in a number of differently oriented groups in the field of contemporary experimental music and freejazz. One of the more visible groups is the energetic trio with drummer Tomas Järmyr and bassist Adrian Myhr which the Czech audience knows from the Czech-Norwegian band of pianist Vojtech Prochazka.
For his first solo studio album Nørstebø choose basically the most sincere form: alone with the trombone, acoustic, with no effects and no prepared compositions.
In the past decade improvised music has developed very much, but simultaneously, and perhaps unconsciously, many of its protagonists began to present a number of restrictive policies. One example might be the often proclaimed non-idiomaticity. To play a melodic tonal phrase using the "normal" sound of the musical instruments can in certain circles be perceived as inappropriate.
What is clearly noticeable from this collection of ten short improvised pieces is the trombonist's bravura technical skills and his overview over such issues. That he approaches the theme with humour is immediately obvious from the introductory piece, which is built mainly around melodies served with a reasonable dose of soulful gospel feeling and with such nonchalance, as if music for solo trombone was the most most common and popular thing in the world.
In the next number Nørstebø dives into more unconventional approaches to the sound of his instrument, and then combines these various procedures. Sometimes he applies various vocal techniques and various items inserted into the trombone, sometimes he focuses on the mechanic noise of the instrument. The results of his experiments are colourful timbres with remarkable development and quite funny to listen to. In this regard, the comparison to the German avant-garde trombonist Johannes Bauer appears suitable.
Among the more significant moments of the album are the fifth piece, an expressive improvisation.
If we were to exaggerate, we could interpret it as a story about a mentally disturbed Dixieland trombonist. Another strong point is the minimalistic eight piece, in which Nørstebø uses only the trombone's resonating tone. The album as a whole is simply a full-blooded testimony of a very promising musician and is one of the brightest indications that the Norwegian avant-garde scene is in no way leaving it's internationally dominant place. His voice magazine

Henrik Norstebo played in recently in Krakow with two fellow countrymen Adrian Myhr and Tomas Jarmyr. Non-musical circumstances didn't allow me to fully absorb the music but the playing was undeniably intriguing and Henrik Norstebo's contribution to music that evening was really inspiring.
I always say a solo album is a risky thing. Too often it's a vain statement of virtuosity, an aweinspiring performance (on given instrument) which is appreciated only by other musicians (who play on the instrument). This is definitely not the case.
10 improvisation (no titles). Each one focused on a certain timbre, sound aspect, a musical subject.
A collage of what can be done, what can be achieved on trombone. But not an exercise or a lesson or catalogue of sampled techniques - Norstebo's improvisations have a strong narrative core, cohesive yet opened form.
It is opened and closed (track 1 and 10) with two wonderfully melodic improvs, lyrical, gentle, played with beautifull warm, round tone. Two songs, simple and heartfelt (my guess would be an influence of norwegian-folk sense of melody in there).
On the other side of the spectrum Norsteby (alternating the melodic and abstract tracks through the album or alternating both approaches within one track) presents a wide array of weird, distorted, sometimes cartoonish sounds, talking, singing, growling through the bone. Track 3 brings a conventional melody but is enriched with sections of vibrating multiphony, than filled with scattered notes. Track 4 begins with a growl like sound but than gets ligher, squeky almost, full of cartoonish glissandos. Buzzing vibrating noise begins Track 6 vibrates like a harmonized mosquito (sung syllables create again the cartoonish character of the music, I couldn't stop laughing listening to this, so honestly enjoyable). Stuttering helicopter sound is accompanied by metallic clicks (mute used as a percussion device) in track 7. Next on the line is a meditative, hypnotic alternation of tense, long, vibrating (polyphony) notes and silence, with the metal of the instrument entering into the resonance with the sound.
Henrik Norstebo creates a set filled with unlimited immagination, rich in colours and ideas. He's playing is a study in the creativity (all the unconventional techniques) but there's a clear in goal in his experimentalism - and that is to create music (and not to impress - in fact he's playing tends to be modest, he prefers the charm of subtlety).
Honest, varied, intimate, sometimes refreshingly surprising, sometimes soothing the mind (track 10!). A brilliantly played album. Not only for trombone players (but you definitely have to like the instrument though). (Free) Jazz Alchemist

It's quite difficult (and somewhat reckless) to propose a solo record on trombone, especially as nowadays this exceptional member of the big family of wind instruments is prominently thought as part of a combo or an orchestra and not so really suitable for a solo performance, but this release by the young Norwegian improvisational trombonist Henrik Munkeby Norstebo, an up-and-coming star of the scene in my opinion, goes beyond any dictates coming from musical trends, marketing pithy sayings or even social prejudices as some listeners joke on trombone considering it a musical instrument for beggars (it seems incredible but I've heard similar oddities even by orchestral directors...). His "Solo" is not a conceptual release at all, but it's quite belittling regarding it as a mere set of exercises as you can attest by listening to the bizarre performative paths explored by this guy: if the first piece could feed that above-sketched stereotyped vision so that his phrases and those nice glissatos could evoke some kind of discharged soldier who embraced Dixieland jazz while reminding the feeling of loneliness while on frontline even if this opener together with the final track is maybe the warmest and most melodious moment of the whole recording, the second track is the first sample where tradional performative techniques of trombone are intertwined with funny and somewhat bizarre vocal experiments and incredible embouchure so that Henrik looks translating into trombone tones the gruff muttering of some angry man after he's been awaken by some irritating noise. There are many moments when Henrik intertwines vocal sketches with the vice of trombone such in the ninth track where his vocalizations looks like a mixture of puffing, mumbling and strangling and in the fourth one where he reminds some cartoons such as Pingu or The Line's choleric reactions against its drawer when meeting a broken line! And there are moments when Henrik plays with glissando, trills and vibrational effects on trombone in a skillful way. Highly enjoyable and nostalgia-tinged music, born from a somewhat dermic relation between musician and instrument. Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø ne manque pas de souffle. Son solo de trombone également. Mais l’élan qui le propulse, parfois, s’enraye. A vouloir donner une forme précise à chaque pièce et en ne s’en éloignant jamais – donc en ne s’offrant ni peur ni reproche ni surprise –, le risque est grand de ne feuilleter qu’un catalogue de théories, plus ou moins bien observées chez les illustres aînés (Lewis, Malfatti).

Si le potentiel du Norvégien semble sans limites, nous aurions aimé qu’il s’investisse plus intensément dans le cambouis d’une improvisation bien plus exaltée. La prochaine fois, sans doute. Luc Bouquet (Le Son du Grisli)

Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø on the other hand creates 10 solo tracks which are microtonal and abstract. However, among the blustery guffaws and agitated glissandi, some surprisingly expressive timbres can be heard. For instance “s3” may have a finale based on doubling the brass tone with throatmurmured
growls, but the exposition is dedicated to fully formed vibrations resulting from a blustery chromatic tone and tongue stops. Utilizing extended brass techniques ranging from wide-bore blowing to expansive throat tightening, Nørstebø produces any manner of textures from his horn. Ken Waxman (The New York City Jazz Record)