Rypdal Lux Aeterna
A strange melding of jazz and classical, at its best when most restrained and luminous
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Palle Mikkelborg, Terje Rypdal
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: ECM New Series
Magazine Review Date: 4/2003
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 60
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: 017 070-2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Lux Aeterna |
Terje Rypdal, Composer
Åshild Stubø Gundersen, Soprano Bergen Chamber Ensemble Iver Kleive, Organ Kjell Seim, Conductor Palle Mikkelborg, Composer Terje Rypdal, Composer Terje Rypdal, Electric guitar |
Author: bwitherden
Terje Rypdal (b1947), who helped define the ECM jazz sound, composed Lux Aeterna in response to a request from the Molde Jazz Festival. The commission was to produce something similar to the second movement of his Double Concerto (1992, released on ECM last year) in celebration of the new organ at Molde Church. Few instruments are less suited to jazz than a church organ, so it is no surprise that the music for soloist Iver Kleive is more Reger than Jimmy Smith.
For the New Series, ECM’s contemporary composition imprint, label-owner Manfred Eicher has recruited composers like Arvo Pärt and Giya Kancheli. Despite having very different musical backgrounds from those of ECM jazz stalwarts like Rypdal, Palle Mikkelborg and Jan Garbarek, these composers fit into the house style, while such compositions as Lux Aeterna question the relevance of a fixed frontier between a primarily improvised and a primarily composed genre. The third movement, with its elegantly melancholy muted trumpet, and the final movement, with its luminous lines for soprano, most effectively validate this approach. Elsewhere, when garish organ chords are unleashed, or Rypdal’s guitar soars in a kind of bel canto/pomp-rock fusion, the sense of balance is less sure.
The first movement introduces a limpid theme for strings. The voicings, decorated with tinkling piano and percussion, sometimes get schmaltzy, but Rypdal can score more acerbically. The second movement recreates a mountain wind that frightened Rypdal when he ran away as a child. Icy string sonorities are intensified by electronically-modified legato guitar elaborating the theme.
Åshild Stubø Gundersen’s contribution is the highlight, but there are enough additional passages of beauty to compensate for the occasional over-egging.
For the New Series, ECM’s contemporary composition imprint, label-owner Manfred Eicher has recruited composers like Arvo Pärt and Giya Kancheli. Despite having very different musical backgrounds from those of ECM jazz stalwarts like Rypdal, Palle Mikkelborg and Jan Garbarek, these composers fit into the house style, while such compositions as Lux Aeterna question the relevance of a fixed frontier between a primarily improvised and a primarily composed genre. The third movement, with its elegantly melancholy muted trumpet, and the final movement, with its luminous lines for soprano, most effectively validate this approach. Elsewhere, when garish organ chords are unleashed, or Rypdal’s guitar soars in a kind of bel canto/pomp-rock fusion, the sense of balance is less sure.
The first movement introduces a limpid theme for strings. The voicings, decorated with tinkling piano and percussion, sometimes get schmaltzy, but Rypdal can score more acerbically. The second movement recreates a mountain wind that frightened Rypdal when he ran away as a child. Icy string sonorities are intensified by electronically-modified legato guitar elaborating the theme.
Åshild Stubø Gundersen’s contribution is the highlight, but there are enough additional passages of beauty to compensate for the occasional over-egging.
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