Viaticum

Artist: E.S.T.
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 4547366019834
ASIN: B0007OE5FU

Release Date: 2005-03-31

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Jazzy Soundscapes

Tracks:

Tide Of Trepidation
Eighty-Eight Days In My Veins
Well-Wisher
Unstable Table And The Infamous Fable
Viaticum
In The Tail Of Her Eye
Letter From The Leviathan
A Picture Of Doris Travelling With Boris
What Though The Way May Be Long

Similar Items:

Seven Days of Falling
Somewhere Else Before
From Gagarin's Point Of View
Strange Place for Snow
The Ground

Customer Reviews:

Sleight of Band.......2006-03-23

I first stumbled across E.S.T. several years ago and have eagerly waited for their newest releases to become available at affordable (to me) prices. Now, for the first time, I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly bless what this innovative trio is up to on their ninth release, "Viaticum." The title, which is a term for a blessing on behalf of a dying person, sets the stage for the darker tone that resonates throughout this recording. But more than the darkness, it's their technique of turning the music inside out that both compels me to keep listening to this CD but at the same time not liking it as much as I hoped I would

Magnus Ostrom's drumming and percussive treatment and Dan Berglund's bass playing (which seems to be more invested in his signature droning than on previous recordings) are more out front on several tracks than Esbjorn Svensson's piano. This inversion is one feature that creates tension in the music. Another form of inversion occurs when the band begins tracks such as The Unstable Table & Infamous Fable with a cacophonous montage which progresses into a piano solo that sounds like it was lifted from a George Winston record back to a wall of jittery sound. And a third type of inversion is how E.S.T. has made silence and space integral to their sound (and once again employed an extended silence in the final track).

The interplay among the three musicians is astounding-yet I cannot quite warm up to this recording. Sometimes, even while listening carefully, I find that I missed the transition and flow from one idea to the next or think that I've been deceived by a "sleight of band" trick or some sort. I will even admit that I'm tempted to speed up the process via fast-forwarding in a couple of places. Maybe in six months or a year, I will have a different opinion.

Another great EST-album!.......2005-09-19

The Esbjorn Svensson Trio is (one of) the best piano-trio's in the world. They prove the statement that it's impossible for jazz to renew itself, without changing it into something completely different to be totally wrong. The trio has been together for a long time, and that you can hear: they really listen to each other.
They have to, because they tend to put so much space or silence in their music, that it would be very hard to play when they didn't.
A lot of jazzcombinations change their strength a lot, and not always in their advantage. At jazzfestivals you here a lot of theme-solo-solo-solo-boringdrumsolo-theme-jazz, and that's allright when the individuals are interesting enough, but a lot of times it's simply not good enough. Somtimes the reason of that is that the bands are so good that they can change their personal a lot, but it doesn't always do the music good. And this is one of the differences between E.S.T. and some other jazzbands you could hear live.

And then there's their tendency to use 'classical' or folkthemes in their music. E.S.T. does that right too: they're not trying anything but to make great music. They're not playing Bach on a banjo (wich is nice, but doesn't really get to you), but they just look (or listen!) for good themes as a base for their music. That's what they do best and that's what makes all of their albums since From Gagarin's Point Of View worth bying.

What makes the music even better is that they seem to bring a lot of elements of their own Scandinavian musical culture into jazz. Maybe that's the explanation of the feeling you get when you see them play live: they really feel what they're playing. And that makes it possible for the audience to feel it to.

E.S.T. is a piano-bass-drums trio, but they sound bigger than a normal trio. Together with the great sound of acoustic instruments they sometimes put in some electronic elements, but they never overdo it. Most of the time they use it as a contast, to keep the balance between 'the beauty and the beast'. A slightly distorted piano can sound like a recording from 1920 and that effect should even be a plus for the traditional jazz-audience.

Esbjorn Svensson is a great pianoplayer. He can set a mood; he plays real good solo's; he almost lives his music. He's able to play very quietly and very loud and sometimes he does both thing within one tune but than a few times. He's very divers in his playing.

The drummer always gets to you. Sometimes he starts of unobstrusively but somewhere he likes to take the song over to give the tune a groove that can't be denied. By Thor, it's not all silence and quietness! Once again it's about the contrast.

On the album Strange Place For Snow you can hear a tune that has the bassplayer doing a very fast riddle together with the piano. The man on the bass used a line 6 pod (for guitar) on the two live shows I saw in Den Haag and Amsterdam to get some special effects. Very normal, considering what's being done in popular music. Also a great musician!

If you don't know anything about E.S.T. it doesn't matter what album since From Gagarin's Point Of View you buy. The ingredients are the same: beautifull themes, contrast, silence, some electronics, acoustic jazz, building up to climax etc.
All this is found on Viaticum too. What apeals to me on this album is the subtlety in the pianoplaying: every note is in the right place, and there's a great balance between free and melodic parts. The band as a whole sounds a bit more like a traditional jazz-band then on the other albums, but still in the unique EST-vocabulary. The classical or folkthemes you can hear on the other albums are a little less prominent on this album. The drumming is a little bit more laid-back, if possible.

Sometimes it's very sad to see that good musicians don't get recognised enough for the things they are doing. And most of the time not because of the people being to stupid to recognise greatness or beauty, but because of comercial and not cultural considerations. When a lot of American jazzmusicians have that problem, what about Scandinavian? E.S.T. must be heared. Buy the album (or another one of E.S.T.) and spred the gospel of Scandinavian jazz!

FJB/O!-music 2006

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