Arild Andersen has been one of Europe’s leading jazz bassists for around 30 years now, and it’s safe to say that there are few here in the States who are familiar with him. Looking over the list of ECM releases featuring Andersen’s work on the label in the booklet for his entry in the rarum anthology series, that’s our fault, not his.
He’s released at least ten albums as a leader as well as his work with the group Masqualero and collaborations with Jan Garbarek and Bill Frissell. Much of that work is represented here, though Andersen chooses to zig-zag across his career rather than moving in anything approaching chronological fashion. While it’s sometimes nice to hear things in order, ultimately the listening experience of the CD is more important (or should be), and so Andersen’s sense of programming on this collection adds to the already potent beauty of the music.
Andersen opens with “Vanilje,” a track from the first Masqualero album Bande A Part, recorded in 1985. The piece’s lengthy opening moves glacially, with Andersen providing the background for his acoustic bass solo with an electric bass utilizing a loop machine. As he points out in his notes, it is one of his few appearances on electric bass, but it’s his acoustic work on the track that is really featured. Drummer Jon Chirstensen provides a hushed cymbal-laden approach, while Jon Balke’s bell-like electric piano seems to float over everything else. When Nils Petter Movaer’s trumpet and Tore Brunborg’s tenor sax enter, it is a relief, grounding the listener after the rhythm section has floated so incredibly high.
“Svev” is a basic trio featuring Arild Andersen, guitarist Ralph Towner, and Nana Vasconcelos on percussion and vocals. Arild and Towner provide the usual sensitive and interactive co-lead work, but Vasconcelos helps take it to a new place with his driving but gentle percussion backgrounds and his mysterious vocal samples that sound like transmissions from some long-ago foreign radio transmission. “The Island” comes from one of Andersen’s best-loved recordings, Hyperborean, and features a basic jazz quartet matched with a classical string quartet. The string section adds a great deal of depth to the textures the group creates, and Kenneth Knudsen’s ethereal keyboards are also notably beautiful. The only things that keep it from floating away are the earthy springiness of Andersen’s bass and the lean, muscular tenor sound of Bendik Hofseth.
“305 W. 18th St.” is from all the way back in 1975, from Arild Andersen’s first recording Clouds In My Head. It features Jon Balke at the piano, Knut Riisnaes on flute and Pal Thowsen on drums. It’s a noirish minor key piece that bounces along at an amiable pace and sounds incredibly jazzy and un-experimental for ’75. Fast forward to 1991 and here’s Andersen in duet with Ralph Towner on “For All We Know.” The two players seem naturally complementary. Nearly a decade before, Andersen had worked for a time with another ECM guitarist, Bill Frisell. “Shorts” comes from the Frisell album In Line, and is also a guitar/bass duet. It’s interesting to compare the two duets. Frisell’s guitar work features his trademark loops and effects, so his style is, of course, instantly discernable from Towner’s.
But more important is the fact that Andersen brings the right touch and approach to each duet. He bolsters each guitarist, yet manages to play with his own style. The lengthy live piece “The Sword Under His Wings” also features Frisell, along with Andersen, pianist John Taylor, and drummer Alphonse Mouzon. The piece is much quicker and more agitated than the duet work, and Andersen flies on the opening section. Mouzon keeps pushing everything forward, and Frisell and Taylor are the perfect frontmen. Frisell cuts loose with some John McLaughlin-style riffs, and Taylor continually stirs the pot with his high-energy punctuation.
Again, it’s important to remember that we’re sweeping back and forth across Andersen’s recording catalog. There is no temporal continuity to the collection, but the musical continuity is remarkable. The Middle Eastern-tinged “Gardsjenta” is from Masqualer’s 1990 release Re-Enter. This time the group is a quartet with no keyboards, and the result is very clean sounding. The same year Andersen released the album Sagn, and the title track is included here. It features Vasconcelos on percussion again as well as vocalist Kirsten Braten Berg, saxophonist Bendik hofseth, guitarist Frode Alnaes, and keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft. The result has a very folkish sound to it even though it is an Andersen original. Nine years later, Andersen is collaborating with Greek classically-trained pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos and drummer John Marshall on his album Achirana, and records his arrangement of a Norwegian folksong, “She’s Gone.”
The last three selections on Arild Andersen’s rarum entry work their way backwards over a decade, from 1987 to 1978. The first, “Printer” from Masquelero’s Aero, is an aggressive, near-funky work penned by tenor saxophonist Tore Brunberg. This time guitarist Frode Alnaes is added to the basic quartet, and the results are energetic and amped-up. “A Song I Used to Play” from 1980’s Lifelines, sports a seemingly impossibly beautiful melody. Pianist Steve Dobrogosz and drummer Paul Motian support Andersen with delicacy, then beef up just a bit when Kenny Wheeler glides in for one of his lyrical flugelhorn solos.
The closer, “Sole” comes from Andersen’s 1978 quartet recording Green Shading Into Blue. It’s a great piece, and features well-blended Mini Moog and Solina String Ensemble synthesizers that serve to fatten the basic quartet sound but are never called upon to stand in for a real string section. Pianist Lars Jansson stands out very clearly on this track, and his overall style is one that I would love to hear more of. He does have a trio recording out, Time We Have, available as an import. In any event, “Sole” brings Andersen’s Selected Works collection back near the beginning of his career with ECM and ends this splendid package of music on a decidedly “up” note.
Though many are unlikely to have heard of Andersen, I would highly recommend this disc to anyone who has enjoyed the ECM rarum collections of other bassits, such as Eberhard Weber or Dave Holland, as well as to those who enjoy progressive improvised music and are unconcerned whether they fall on the jazz, classical, or rock side of the coin (yes, that’s a three-sided coin). Hell, I’d wager a lot of fans of ambient and chill out music would really enjoy this CD. Give it a try—what have you got to lose?