Record Reviews

FILIP AUGUSTSON ~ VIVA BLACK FOUND YOU 030 (Barcode: 7320470198605) ~ SWEDEN ~ Avant-Garde Jazz-Classical Fusion Recorded: 2014 Released: 2015 This is the debut album by Swedish bassist / composer Filip AugustsonFind albums by this artist recorded in an intimate trio setting with violinist Eva LindalFind albums by this artist and drummer Christopher CantilloFind albums by this artist. It presents ten original compositions, six of which were composed by Augustson and four are collective improvisations by the trio. The music proposes a unique blend of Avant Garde Improvised Music, Jazz and contemporary Classical vistas, very condensed and intimate and obviously created in an ensemble spirit. The element of conversation and mutual exchange is the most important ingredient of this music, executed by the trio which becomes one body while the music plays. Augustson and Lindal share the spotlight by playing lead parts interchangeably, but most of the time it is the entire trio at work, which creates this magical music. Minimalistic and yet highly expressive, the music manages to penetrate the listener´s attention on many different levels. The more lyrical and delicate parts grab the listener with their naked emotionality, while the complex up-tempo ones are about surrendering to the rhythm and letting go of one´s consciousness. This is anything but trivial music and as such requires a lot of investment from the listener: his undivided attention, his emotional involvement and his intellectual powers of analysis and investigation. Such multi layered process of communication with this music probably means that more than one listening session is in order before the state of Nirvana is achieved. But at the end of the proverbial tunnel lays the satisfaction this music is ready to share with the listener. This album is an amazing testimony as to the level of European Jazz (in the most liberal definition of the idiom), which keeps growing everywhere, often far away from the assumed cultural centers. With today´s technology and attitude great music is able to erupt anywhere and anytime, and it is up to us to spot it amongst the oceans of garbage that surround us, threatening to take over thousands of years of development. This is a most impressive debut effort, which was followed up by another great album released a year later on the same label, which means that we can expect to hear more of this extraordinary music again in the future. I am already awaiting it anxiously.

Updated: 17/12/2018Posted: 18/06/2016

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