“…finds a way of breathing new life into the avantgarde” - All About Jazz
—
“they are connected by movement that can never be pretended by paper, it grows out of execution.”
KJÆRGAARD
WESTERGAARD
BRUUN
TRIO
Søren Kjærgaard, piano
Jonas Westergaard, Bas
Peter Bruun, Drums
photo by mike højgaard / neue pink
supported by
the Danish Art Counsil
Søren Kjærgaard, Jonas Westergaard and Peter Bruun have for several years been leading voices on the European music scene within modern jazz, improvised music and contemporary composition.
The trio is a collective symbiotic unit that immerses itself in the field of tension between complex stringent structures and improvisation.
The trio excels in an extremely thorough and collective study of original material. Through processing and immersion from every conceivable perspective, a bodily understanding of complex musical concepts sprouts and gives the three musicians a completely liberated intuition to move between composition and improvisation.
“…compositions and improvisations replace each other seamlessly in a fascinating work with structures that point partly back to history and partly directly into the future"
SØREN KJÆRGAARD
Søren Kjærgaards work as a pianist, composer and improviser encompasses a variety of settings ranging from his trans-Atlantic trio with drummer Andrew Cyrille and bassist Ben Street, to the duo collaboration with Torben Ulrich, the 82 year old legendary Danish tennis player and inter-disciplinary artist. Kjærgaard has received numerous awards and grants, including three Danish Music Award nominations (’06, ’09), a Danish Arts Council Prize Award (’10) for the album “Open Opus” with Kjærgaard/Street/Cyrille and his third trio release “Femklang” with Street and Cyrille was selected as Album Of The Year 2011 in The New York Jazz Record.
PETER BRUUN
Peter Bruun has placed himself among the most accomplished drummers in European modern jazz and improv for his distinct playing style. He has released music on the legendary ECM-label with Django Bates’ ‘Beloved’, toured with French guitarist Marc Ducret and 2018 saw the birth of the ambitious project All Too Human. All Too Human have since released two albums (Vernacular Avantgarde and Because You're Worth It').
Peter recieved the Carl Nielsen Prize for 'composer of the year 2019' and All Too Human recieved the Jazz prize/William Demant foundations for group of the year in 2020.
“Copenhagen drummer Peter Bruun has a Passion for Productive Paradoxezz. Black can be white vice versa. There is jazz, the other music and there is also the clever game of playing the other music in an other way." Henning Bolte - European Jazz Network
“…finds a way of breathing new life into the avantgarde” -All About Jazz
JONAS WESTERGAARD
Jonas Westergaard studied double bass in Copenhagen and New York. He is long regarded a leading voice on the instrument in Europe.
Recipient of Jacob Gade’s Legat in 2000 and Léonie Sonning’s Talent Prize 2005.
Recipient of the Danish Radio P2 Jazz Prize 2006, which launched and let to the release of “Helgoland”, a performance written for 9 musicians, that earned him a Danish Music Award 2009, in the category Composer of the Year.
He is currently residing in Berlin, where a.o. his work with the trio Dell/Lillinger/Westergaard (DLW) must be mentioned as a critical and essential force on the European experimental art scene. Their latest album “Beats”, following “Grammar” and “Grammar II”, is on the Longlist of the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik@21.01 and the trio is nominated for the Deutsche Jazz Preis 2021, in the category Band of The Year.
RECORDINGS
Positions - written by Jonas Westergaard, is an open form that falls into 3 form blocks. The improvisational element, as an ever-present possibility, grants the three musicians leeway and the right, at any given time, to introduce vectors that expand the musical space. The musicians involved give the work plasticity, constantly attacking and illuminating the given material from multiple positions.
Thēsaurōs - written by Peter Bruun, is an examination of polymetric structures and the potentials between the structured and the intuitive through embodyment. The full program consist of 7 pieces and will be released on ILK music in the Spring 2021 on a double vinyl.
RELATED RECORDING
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
P e t e r B r u u n - D r u m s a n d c o m p o s i n g
S ø r e n K j æ r g a a r d - P i a n o
J o n a s W e s t e r g a a r d - B a s s
T o r b e n S n e k k e s t a d - S a x & c l a r i n e t
E i v i n L ø n n i n g - T r u m p e t
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
by Peter Bruun
“Obdurate, microtonal tracks, the seven graphical compositions by Danish drummer Peter Bruun that unroll with dawdling unhurriedness on this LP, confirm the writing skills of the percussionist who in the past has been part of aggregations headed by innovators such as French guitarist Marc Ducret and British pianist Django Bates. Considering through, that many of the dynamics on these atmospheric tracks’ relate to deliberate keyboard motions, the unintended consequences is that the focus is most frequently on the interpretations of pianist Søren Kjærgaard, known for his collaborations with American drummer Andrew Cyrille. With the measured exposition of these tunes often resembling the notated style of Morton Feldman, expected Jazz-oriented asides are at a minimum. Nonetheless the freedom Bruun has given the soloists – who also include trumpeter Eivind Lønning, multi-reedist Torben Snekkestad and bassist Jonas Westergaard – adds improvisational spikiness that easily contradict by-rote tempo dragging.
The first hint of how the band meets the challenge occurs on “Serendipity”, as Snekkestad’s outer directed trills and slurs plus Bruun’s careful brush work animate what formerly – and on the two previous tracks had been – a nearly unbroken piano line. Once other timbres are added the keyboard ostinato is finally splintered enough to join with the others’ textures to create a poignant sound space. Another variant of this sophisticated strategy is on “Træskonæb”. With only the composer’s rolls and rumbles backing Kjærgaard’s repetative keyboard-brushing sequences most of its length, the composition finally comes to life in the final minutes as vamping horns confirm the initial exposition.
In a role reversal which has him subverting his own theme, Bruun’s unconventional staccato pulses break up the mobile piano chords on “Lavine”; whereas “No 4 (b)” is the most aggressive exposition. This constrained free-for-all adds Westergaard’s abrasive string scrubs, trumpet triplets and whinnying clarinet tones as a unique trope that injects a weird folkloric interface to the piano narrative. By the conclusion sharp tone experimentation has become so paramount that distinguishing which string player is creating bell-like pings becomes impossible.
It’s not that sonic philosophy that underlies Bruun’s unique compositions is ever lost however. By the conclusion of the final “Phil”, following direct reed twitters, rim shots and walking-bass suggestions, the pianist reprises a variant of the thematic sequence that begins the disc.
In short, the intended consequences of Unintended Consequences are to confirm Bruun’s evolving talents as a composer and arranger as well as a drummer”.
—Ken Waxman