NKM008
Nakama
Most intimate
Artist: Nakama
Album title: Most Intimate
Label: Nakama Records
Catalog number: NKM008LP / NKM008CD
Release: 12th December 2016
Formats and pricing:
- LP from €12
- CD from €5
Shipping:
- From Norway to Norway
- From Slovenia to EU and rest of the world
Press
Even though the music on this album isn’t conceptual, the structure of it is. I wanted to make a collaborative album portraying the musicians as ensemble players, improvisers, soloists and composers. In order to fulfill that vision we decided to write small Dedications to each other. I wrote for Andreas, Andreas for Adrian, Adrian for Ayumi and Ayumi for me. The only rule was that the person who received the dedication was to be omitted from the composition. Each of the dedications are followed by a solo improvisation, or as we have called it here — Gratitude — from the receiver. The solo is then followed by a synthesis of the two former, a short improvised something with all four, but with the dedicator and the receiver swapping instruments. We have called these pieces Unifications. I also made a little theme with a corresponding variation to serve as a wrapping around it all. In addition we made a fifth Unification which is a free interpretation of the aforementioned theme, and in which all of us swap instruments so that we play the one instrument we did not get to play in the other four Unifications.
All in all the recording consists of 15 tracks which present the band in literally all possible solo-, duo-, trio- and quartet combinations. The duos are presented on the opening track which is the variation on the theme, the trios on the Dedications, the quartets on the Unifications, and the solos on the Gratitudes. The album can be experienced without this knowledge, but is really structured to be listened to as the way it is grouped - as a question, a response, and a sort of agreement (Dedication, Gratitude, Unification).
With the exception of the title theme, none of us had heard any of the other compositions beforehand. We had been touring for 9 days, and I wanted the tour to culminate in a recording session which took advantage of the fatigue we were suffering from. Great things happen when the discerning, analytic and intellectual mind is bypassed, and it is that flavor which «Most Intimate» is representing.
- Christian
Artist bio
Nakama is led by bass player Christian Meaas Svendsen. Improvisation is a central component in the band’s music, and the glue that unites a repertoire spanning from the neo romantic to the contemporary and conceptual. Amongst forms, layers, concepts and structures the players are given room for individual and collective escapades. The result is a mash-up of musical prose, poetry and academia in an incomprehensible yet accessible language.
Credits
Adrian Løseth Waade - violin, piano, drums, bass, comp.
Ayumi Tanaka - piano, drums, bass, violin, comp.
Andreas Wildhagen - drums, bass, violin, piano, comp.
Christian Meaas Svendsen - bass, violin, piano, drums, comp.
Recording - Hans Andreas Horntveth Hansen
Mix - Christian Obermayer
Master - Christian Obermayer
Cover design - Mikkel Cappelen Smith
Ayumi / Christian / Adrian / Andreas