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"Solid Ether" |
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ROOTDOWN COMMENT >>
More abstract, less beat driven than other outings - NPM's trumpet has never sounded better than against the floaty electro backdrops here - featuring Eivind Aarset on guitar also, this a very finely worked set indeed...
EDITORIAL REVIEW >>
Nils Petter Molvaer is a young Norwegian trumpeter whose allegiances lie less with Miles Davis than with the sonic architecture of ambient, jungle, and drum 'n' bass dance grooves. But since this is an ECM recording, you'd expect him to take a more abstract and ethereal approach, and he does. With the CD recorded in 1999 and only now released in the U.S., Molvaer is a little late to the fair, coming behind other electronica trumpeters including Tim Hagans, Jon Hassell, and Ben Neill, but his original approach to electronica groove creation, including mixing live rhythm sections with programmed beats, keeps it fresh. Molvaer orchestrates some effective grooves on the menacing "Dead Indeed" and the doomsday song of "Ligotage," but his improvisations rarely appear on the same page. His rhythms are hot and nasty, but his solos are muzzled, as if he's ruminating on the elaborate electro-percussion orchestrations. It's a great sound on the many open-ended, rhythm-free atmospheres that emerge on the album, but when the rhythm locks in, Molvaer sticks with the abstract ECM vibe rather than kicking out the jams. Guitarist Eivind Aarset gets some raucous licks in on the title track, but muted and slurred, Molvaer is content to inhabit his terrain like a wraith. --John Diliberto
 |  | 'Dead Indeed' |
| | 'Kakonita' |
| | 'Ligotage' |
| | 'Solid Ether' |
| | 'Tragamar' |
| | 'Trip' |
| | 'Vilderness 1' |
| | 'Vilderness 2' |
LISTENER REVIEWS >>
¡Excepcional!
Un CD excepcional ha producido el màtico sello europeo ECM.
El maestro Nils Petter Molvà¦r sorprende con una frescura y una aplicacià³n notable. Combinando sus raàces, que, claramente, nos dirigen a Miles Davis, y màºsica electrà³nica, muy en el centro de la sensibilidad contemporà¡nea, resulta en melodàas bellàsimas, con toques de cierto lirismo melancà³lico, propio, quizà¡, de los paàses nà³rdicos.
Desde Noruega nos llega esta maravilla de la màºsica de ahora mismo. Bien por ECM. Bien por el Sr. Molvà¦r.
Stretching An Idea!
Not what I would call jazz. Not sure what genre this fits into! Ok for "background noise."
Uninnovative
You recognize a good Jazz album if every time you listen to it you find something new, and you like it more and more. This happens for example if you decide to buy the all-time-classics "Kind of Blue", or Bill Evans' "Valse for Debby". You recognize a bad Jazz album if the opposite happens, namely you really like it a lot from first listening on, but after some time it becomes boring, you put it somewhere at the back of your shelf and never listen to it again.
If you accept this, then you will categorize "Solid Ether" as a bad Jazz album. I would not call it Jazz at all. It is more like Trip Hop with a little trumpet playing (net time 1 minute per song, and the songs are on average 6 minutes long). The drum programming is so inferior to any DrumNBass-producer that I would not compare it with DNB either.
Whether NPM is a good trumpet player, I don't know because he hardly plays, and if then only a simple melody. But I do know that he is no innivator at all, unless you would call it highly innovative if you put on Massive Attack and accompany it with a little horn playing. In contrast to Eric Mantis, NPM and all his Norwegian colleagues will be forgotten in 5 years.
I do not want to be too strict with "Solid Ether", though, because at the beginning I really liked it a lot. There are some tracks on the CD's which are truly "beautyful", for example "Vilderness" and "Solid Ether". It is a little bit ironic that on such an electronic dominated album, the only acustic song, "merciful", is by far the best, yet so short. The singing is wonderful, and the minimalistic piano playing fits perfectly.
I then thought that there might be hidden talents in NPM. But when I listened to his newer album NP3, I gave up on NPM, also considering that his oldest album "Khmer" puts you to sleep. "NP3" is so terrible that its not even worth a review. Clearly, "Solid Ether" is his best, but only mediocre.
OTHER PEOPLE WHO LIKE "Solid Ether" ALSO LIKE >>
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 | "Streamer" by Nils Petter Molvaer MORE INFO |
