Just a couple of weeks since I released my newest solo album, and here’s a new single already! I’m very proud of this project, and it’s exciting for me since this is the first time I’m releasing music with a bigger ensemble (yes, I have worked with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, but that album won’t be out until 2024!). Here is Circumzenithal from Water Fabric, which will be out Nov 24!
Espen Berg, piano and compositions
Hayden Powell, trumpet
Harpreet Bansal, violin
Ellie Mäkelä, viola
Joakim Munkner, cello
Per Oddvar Johansen, drums
Recorded in Rainbow Studios, Oslo by Martin Abrahamsen
Mixed by Martin Abrahamsen
Mastered by Morgan Nicolaysen
Funded by Fond for lyd og bilde, Fond for utøvende kunstnere and Creos vederlagsfond
Released on Odin Records
The original idea behind Circumzenithal was to give the instruments a somewhat reversed role. Here, the strings act as the engine and groove, while the piano plays melodies alongside the trumpet. Circumzenithal arc is the name of a type of halo that occurs when sunlight hits ice crystals several kilometers high in the atmosphere, and the halo appears as an inverted rainbow – a smile in the sky.
Both the idea and the sound are at times inspired by the music of Daniel Herskedal, who is a close friend of mine and a colleague for 20 years. The melodies in Circumzenithal are composed based on spontaneously composed material, adding spontaneity and rhetoric that I cannot replicate through traditional composition.
Water Fabric was originally commissioned by Jazzfest Trondheim in 2020, in collaboration with Maijazz Stavanger and Oslo Jazzfestival, and was premiered to standing ovations at these three festivals in 2022. The title itself embraces broadly, as an analogy to water in all possible states, textures and shades, and it is borrowed from a piece that Espen wrote back in 2005 and later arranged for string quartet. With Water Fabric he revisits the chamber music format, but this time with maturity and countless experiences richer.
ESPEN BERG 