Erlend Skomsvoll - Playful '2018

Tracks list

Eschewing the support of either electronics or other musicians, Skomsvoll is
alone at his piano, investigating musicality as a medium of expression, not an
intellectual exercise. By the very nature of this arrangement this album becomes
something more personal, but this feeling comes more so from Skomsvolls playing.
The album title is something of a pun, suggesting the act of playing (the piano
in this case), the light-hearted and childlike playtime, and the joy of
experimentation. Featuring the classic piano sound recording of the legendary
Jan Erik Kongshaug in Rainbow Studios, Oslo, the full range and resonance of the
piano is beautifully captured.

The album has a fragmentary, epigraphical approach, and is filled with
improvisational and compositional miniatures alongside a few extended
meditations. Elements of minimalism appear in some tracks, while others scurry
through cascades of notes like tinkling bells. The music is at cemercurial, ably
moving from the skittish to the deliberate, the contemplative to the emotive,
and from the agitated to the serene. Throughout runs the theme of a river, with
all its moods, sounds and inhabitants referenced, mimicked, described or
commented upon. It has the feel of poetry, with different metres and verse
forms, some sonnets, some haiku, some free verse.

All the tracks are composed by Skomsvoll, with the exception of  Skal Ikke
Glemme = Wont Forget by Bill Evans and Alle De Tinga = All Those Things by
Jerome Kern, both given treatments that render them both strange and familiar,
but without losing their innate musicality. Skomsvolls past work has encompassed
such a great diversity of forms, it is difficult to pin him down. Whether
listening to his work with Wibutee, Come Shine, Skomsvork, or Trondheim
Orchestra, or his accompaniment of artists such as Iren Reppen, Siri Gjære or
Frank Kvinge, or his recent foray into classical music with the 1B1 orchestra,
Skomsvoll is a presence that is both reassuring and unpredictable. Never merely
a standard player, his improvisations display an endless searching, rarely
content to dwell too long in the e place. With Leken = Playful he showcases his
unique musical personality in its most raw and unveiled form.

Tracklist:
1:02 | 01. Erlend Skomsvoll - Vandresang/ Song from the wanderer
2:32 | 02. Erlend Skomsvoll - Ælvesang 1/ Riversong no 1
4:57 | 03. Erlend Skomsvoll - Skal ikke glemme/ Won´t forget
1:32 | 04. Erlend Skomsvoll - Ælvesang 2/ Riversong no. 2
1:21 | 05. Erlend Skomsvoll - Åmot Brlues del 1. Nå må jeg vel få
fisk/ This time I´ll get fish!
2:29 | 06. Erlend Skomsvoll - Ã…mot Brlues del 2. Fisk er fisk/ Fish is Fish
2:47 | 07. Erlend Skomsvoll - Svanen/ The Swan
2:52 | 08. Erlend Skomsvoll - Glassveven/ Woven Glass
5:49 | 09. Erlend Skomsvoll - Minelismer/ Mine-lisms
2:10 | 10. Erlend Skomsvoll - Langs med elva/ Along the river
3:18 | 11. Erlend Skomsvoll - Hade sorg/ Goodbye sorrow
3:08 | 12. Erlend Skomsvoll - Bukkenikkenei/ Parafrase of a Norwegian birthday
song
2:48 | 13. Erlend Skomsvoll - Salme i Db/ Psalm in D flat
2:00 | 14. Erlend Skomsvoll - Salme i Dm/ Psalm in D minor
3:27 | 15. Erlend Skomsvoll - Salme Gm/ Psalm in G minor
3:28 | 16. Erlend Skomsvoll - Alle de tinga/ All those things
6:21 | 17. Erlend Skomsvoll - Hvor Enn, Hvor hen?/Where ever, Where?
2:01 | 18. Erlend Skomsvoll - Uten tekst/ Textless

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