Snow Country cs490

Loxbo's collaboration with bass clarinet player Erik Blennow Calälv, from the experimental quartet The Schematics, focuses on contemplative drones. It is one of Loxbo'a duo collaborations in recent years that also include sessions with pianists Lisa Ullén and Karin Johansson. The five pieces on Snow Country, recorded on April 2017, feature Loxbo creating fleeting, resonating tones on the acoustic, steel-stringed guitar and the musical saw, while Calälv adds shakuhachi-like, deep breaths that echo and blend within the guitar sounds. Both patiently suggest ethereal string of overtones that keep flowing around, almost embrace you gently.

The highly disciplined dimension of these pieces has a ritualistic-meditative quality, emphasized with a piece titled “Ryoanji”, after the famous Japanese Zen garden in Kyoto, that inspired before an ionic composition from John Cage. Just like in a meditative state of mind when all senses are suspended for a while only to experience these sense later on in all their intensity, Snow Country suggests a new listening experience. Loxbo and Calälv explore new, subtle qualities, colors and dynamics within the sounds themselves, just like the snow that comes in many shapes, textures and names in these Northern territories. Eyal Hareuveni (The Free Jazz Collective)

A duo between guitarist Finn Loxbo (Fire! Orchestra) and bass clarinet Erik Blennow Calälv in a low-key, elongated and at the same time surprisingly dense music. The five tracks are relative short, between 5 and 8 minutes each, but each piece creates a distinctive sound. Loxbo's guitar, like Blennow Calel's bass clarinet, is played in an unconventional way, searching and exploring and using unusual techniques and aspects of their instruments not typically intended for sound. Their work is meditative and suggestive, with titles like "Ghosts", "Clouds", "Moving, Dancing", and "Ryoanji"--known as the name of a zenbuddish temple in Kyoto, Japan--, and ending with "Ayram". Though improvised, the music has a composed aspect to it, and the stability and confidence of their playing determines the mood and placid strength of their work. (Squidco)

Duon med gitarristen Finn Loxbo och basklarinettisten Erik Blennow Calälv bjuder på denna skiva en lågmäld, utdragen och på samma gång förtätad musik. Det är en musik där man arbetar i det lilla formatet, men samtidigt skapar en säregen klangrikedom. En bidragande orsak till det är att Loxbo även spelar på såg. Men hans gitarr, liksom Blennow Calälvs basklarinett, spelas på ett okonventionellt sätt, sökande och utforskande. Det hela blir till meditativa och suggestiva stycken, med titlar som Ghosts, Clouds, Moving, Dancing, och Ryoanji – som bekant också är namnet på ett zenbuddistiskt tempel i Kyoto, Japan – samt den avslutande Ayram. Kompositioner, som utöver musikens självständiga och associationsfria omedelbarhet, kanske ger en hint om var inspirationen har hämtats. Annars är musiken på denna skiva snarare sprungen ur en experimentell konstmusikalisk tradition, än till exempel annan improvisationsmusik, som mer har beröringspunkter med jazzens uppbyggnad. Snow Country fyller efter en några genomlyssningar både det inre och yttre rummet med välbehag och frid, där jag mer än gärna vill befinna mig. Roger Bergner (orkesterjournalen)

[…] Coming from a stance of meiosis is Swedish bass clarinetist Erik Blennow Calälv, who has worked with musicians such as Katt Hernandez. On Snow Country’s five selections he intermingles understated reed timbres with similar sound fabric contours from the guitar and musical saw [!] of Finn Loxbo, who has played with Mats Gustafsson.
(…) then Calälv’s and Loxbo’s musical vision is tinged with acoustic rusticity. Beginning with near stasis as singular strums and individual puffs hang in the air with near insouciance, by the appropriately named “Moving, Dancing” and then “Ryoanji” a varoiant of action arrives. Soon the two move from quiet equilibrium to reed tones swelling that ultimately snarls into spetrofluctuation and finger vibrations, with equal animation coming from the guitarist’s slurred fingering. The culmination results in balanced improvisations that mask pressurized cores beneath a tranquil surface.wo contrasting methods of involving clarinets in the furthest reaches of experimental music could be termed the Heavy Metal verses the Reductionist approach. Needless to say these aren’t CDs to play for those animated by Benny Goodman or Mozart’s clarinet concertos. Or perhaps this is unfair for anyone could be drawn in to these reconfigurations of the clarinet’s standard role.
(...) Calälv’s and Loxbo’s musical vision is tinged with acoustic rusticity. Beginning with near stasis as singular strums and individual puffs hang in the air with near insouciance, by the appropriately named “Moving, Dancing” and then “Ryoanji” a varoiant of action arrives. Soon the two move from quiet equilibrium to reed tones swelling that ultimately snarls into spetrofluctuation and finger vibrations, with equal animation coming from the guitarist’s slurred fingering. The culmination results in balanced improvisations that mask pressurized cores beneath a tranquil surface. Ken Waxman (JazzWord)