Geir Lysne

Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic VIII - MediterraneoCD / digital Stefano Bollani piano Jesper Bodilsen bass Morten Lund drums Vincent Peirani accordion & accordina Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker Geir Lysne arranger & conductor To put the “Sound of Europe” on the big stage is the mission of “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic” and of its curator Siggi Loch. Earlier concerts in the series – tracking down “Celtic Roots” or strolling through “Norwegian Woods” – have shown how the sheer plenitude of European music has left its mark on the jazz of our time. Many of the roots of European music are to be found in Italy. The country was an early hub for Western classical music, and was where opera was born. From Sicily up to Venice, all kinds of gloriously diverse and many-hued folk music heritages are nurtured. There is a nationwide tradition of the “cantautore”, and in film music, Italy sets the trend: Nino Rota's and Ennio Morricone's movie scores are known worldwide. “Mediterraneo” avails itself of this cornucopia of inspiration – and sets off on a journey of discovery. The 17th concert in the “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic” series was a major event which took place in the sold-out main hall of the hallowed temple of classical music. The central figure of the evening is Stefano Bollani. This maestro of the jazz piano, born in Milan in 1972, is a figure of unrivalled prominence on the Italian jazz scene. His creative arc is uncommonly far-reaching. It ranges from working with senior figures like Lee Konitz, through luminaries like Chick Corea, Pat Metheny and, of course, his longtime partner Enrico Rava, French innovators such as Michel Portal and Martial Solal, and on to world music greats such as Caetano Veloso and Richard Galliano. So, for “Mediterraneo”, it was important for Bollani to cast his net wide, to shape an evening that would be full of variation and surprise; the Italian is not content just to perform for the audience, above all he wants to entertain them: alongside Monteverdi, Rota and Morricone, Puccini and Rossini, there was also the evergreen sixties pop song “Azzurro”, made famous by Adriano Celentano. Bollani emerged as the ideal travel guide for this Italian night. With his completely individual virtuosity and his enjoyment in playing, his Mediterranean ease and well-judged injections of humor, Bollani takes the listener on the Grand Tour through the music of his homeland. Right by his side an exceptional rhythm section with the two Danes: Jesper Bodilsen and Morten Lund, plus a star guest on the accordion, Vincent Peirani, and 14 intrepid members of the Berliner Philharmoniker. They don't just bring a cultured sound, they also prove refined improvisers. The Norwegian Geir Lysne wrote the arrangements for the concert, and also directs the musicians through this Italian night. He is an ideal partner for Bollani. They have already won an ECHO prize for their work with the NDR Bigband. Both are musicians who like to make discoveries and spring surprises. Lysne is an extremely deft experimenter in sound. He uses unusual instrumentation to bring a richness of timbre, and also brings tension and a unique feel for groove, placing musical material into wholly new and unexpected contexts. And then there is Vincent Peirani. Raised in Nice, the most visible face of young French jazz, the accordionist is a talented storyteller. He had already shone at the “Accordion Night” in the Berlin Philharmonie. This time, in his tightly meshed interplay with Bollani, he ensures that there is additional Mediterranean flair, and his cultured playing brings heart-stopping moments of excitement and surprise. The well-known themes by Ennio Morricone from the spaghetti western movies are kept aside for Peirani. They are showpieces for him at his absolute best. Bollani and Co. delivered utterly compelling passages of music, and touched the hearts of the audience. “Mediterraneo” wasn't just a unique musical occasion. It also proved a point: Europe has so much to offer.Credits: Recorded by Nanni Johansson live in concert at the Berlin Philharmonie, Großer Saal, June 12, 2017 Mixed by Klaus Scheuermann with Geir Lysne & Roberto Lioli Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Curated and produced by Siggi Loch Cover art by Federico Herrero, Landscape, 2017 by permission of the artist and Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf

Geir Lysne - New CircleCD / digital Geir Lysne saxophones, flutes, jews harp, voice, keys, ballaphone, kalimba, programming, perc. Reidar Skår keys, programmingEckhard Baur trumpet, flugelhorn, voice Gjermund Silset bass Olav Torget electric guitars, acoustic guitar Knut Aalefjær drums, percussion Guests: Nguyên Lê electric guitar (04) Helge Sunde trombone (01, 04 & 06) Huong Thanh vocals (04) Solo Cissoko vocals, kora (07) Audun Erlien bass (03) Peter Baden percussion, electronics (01 & 04) Helge Norbakken percussion (02 & 07) Renate Alsing marimba (07) Around 15 years ago, a new generation of jazzers set out to find new ways of escaping the rigidity of post-bop and jazz fusion. Young musicians, especially in Scandinavia, tore down genre borders and borrowed from their own folk music, rock and pop, making people like Esbjörn Svensson, with his entirely new interpretation of the piano trio, and Nils Landgren, with his Nordic funk music, famous. Bugge Wesseltoft surprised with his "New Conceptions of Jazz" and his Norwegian compatriot, the trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, merged jazz with electronic music and the sound of his home country. Geir Lysne's redefinition of the big band concept was and is hardly any less revolutionary. The uniqueness of "Listening Ensemble", as the Norwegian initially named his big band in 1999, was quickly recognised by the experts in the field: "This band doesn't copy from anything, anywhere," wrote Werner Burkhardt in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2001. In 2006, Ulrich Olshausen of the FAZ newspaper found that Geir Lysne was a "diamond solitaire and visionary", and that same year, Oliver Hochkeppel wrote in the SZ that the ensemble was a "charmingly autochthonous formation" that succeeded the Vienna Art Orchestra in terms of music history, as a melodious avant-garde. Just recently Lysne was awarded the ECHO Jazz 2013 (Best Big Band Album) for his extraordinary arrangements on the "Big Band!" album of the NDR big band, together with the Italian pianist Stefano Bollani. The composer and multi-instrumentalist Lysne himself described his approach ex negativo: "I don't write ordinary big band music. You won't find any AABA structure in my tunes, no continuous swing rhythms, conventional changes or blues-based themes." Instead, Lysne taught the jazz orchestra an entirely new richness of timbres on three ACT albums, which garnered numerous honours, including the annual award of the German record critics, the Danish Music Award and the Norwegian Grammy. With unaccustomed instrumentations using flutes, percussion, laptop and instrumentally employed voices, and most of all with extensive recourse to world music contexts, a new "Nordic" and unmistakable kind of melodious stereophony and dynamism resulted for the big ensemble. Lysne's work is so innovative that most of the notable orchestras have since then invited him to take part in projects or conduct; from the NDR and hr big bands to the UMO big band and all five Norwegian military orchestras. Composition and professorial commissions also followed. But now, at the age of 48, Lysne has found that the time has come to "meet new people, make new music and broaden his sphere of activity." And so it is that "New Circle" became the title of his new ACT album, on which he works for the first time with the relatively small sextet setup, although with a panoply of well-known guest stars. But this isn't Lysne turning his back on his former composition principles and working methods. On the contrary, it is their compression and intensification. Although the foundation is only five acoustic instrumentalists: Eckhard Baur, Olav Torget, Gjermund Silset and Knut Aalefjaer, "New Circle" sounds almost no less orchestral than the earlier albums. The key element here is Reidar Skar, a "true master of the computer," as Lysne says. Skar formed this "electro-acoustic recomposition production" (Lysne) with his alienations and innovative computer sounds, without infringing on the artistic integrity of Lysne's orchestrations, subtleties, double entendres, his predilection for folk singers, ethnic grooves, strong melodies and soundscapes. "It was time to get urban, and feel the exciting, fantastic privilege of living in a multicultural world in which music is the universal language," says Geir Lysne, summing up the goal of "New Circle". And so it is that the urban groove of the introductory "Please Welcome!", moving across all continents and using everything from Ravel's Bolero to Asian chants, inevitably casts a spell on the listener. The feeling of missing something ("Sakn" in Norwegian) is examined in the Asian-American-European just as much as are works from earlier Lysne albums. Kaa, the Jungle Book python that Lysne once introduced on "Boshjenasti", now slithers up-tempo and bouncy through an urban jungle full of associations and bursting at the seams with sounds. The piece based on Joik singing of the Sami people is back again too – but "A Million Stars" this time not only twinkle above the Nordic tundra (brought to shine, for example, by Peter Baden's electro percussion and the trombone of Lysne's famed big-band colleague Helge Sunde), but also over the Vietnamese jungle, sung of by the great Huong Thanh and accompanied by the guitar of Nguyên Lê. The British comic heroine "M.B.", brought to life in a musical sense on "Korall", also gains a little, African niece, in the person of "Amana Na Nunga". A Norwegian church psalm is then also given an African incarnation by the Senegalese singer and kora player Solo Cissoko and Renate Alsing's marimba from Zimbabwe. "Alwilly" – as just prior to it "22" – is a meditation on the Norwegian trauma of the Breivik attack on 22 July – a political song, a summons to rise up for peace on earth. But in his music, Geir Lysne already masters this enormous challenge that society and politics will long struggle to get a grip on. He makes global diversity sound as if it had always been unified. Credits: Produced by Reidar Skår and Geir Lysne Recorded 2011 - 2013 by Reidar Skår (7 etage studio), Geir Lysne (Brattopp studio), Nguyên Lê (studio Louxor ) and Peter Baden (Baden studio) Mixed by Reidar Skår. Mastered by Bjørn Engelmann at Cutting Room Released with support from Arts Council Norway

"Lysne is one of the greatest living jazz big band visionaries, and his pieces, with or without Grieg, stand splendidly in the naturally very Norwegian landscape." - FAZ "CD of the MONTH" in AUDIO and STEREOPLAY.

Geir Lysne's Listening Ensemble blends Nordic sounds with jazz, folk, and powerful melodies. A magical musical journey.