Elegy of Skies
”It is all there, but it is not. enters into a form of questions and answers. Like many musicians in the so-called Amorphic, or specific, some of it imaginable. The melody is characteristicSVERRE for one of GJØRVADjazz tradition, like other musicians of his Contours, structures and textures… shapes and substances. Gjørvad’s compositional strategies, what I am generation, Gjørvad also relates to pop Drama tempted to call a reflexive naivety. music. More specifically, he introduces at least It is about telling stories.” one pop cover on his albums. On this one, “Rein” is partly inspired by David Monrad it is Prefab Sprout’s “Mercy,” where Joakim Johansen’s “Rensdyr” (Reindeer), and here Milder joins the band on tenor saxophone. another dimension of Gjørvad’s stories Surrounded by organ, with discreet come to the fore: a Nordic or Northern drumming, and bass fundament, the melody dimension. There is something site-specific becomes the carrying dimension of the cover. about his stories, him being inspired from This may not be surprising for a pop song, Photo JonasLichingerJessen his surroundings, and as a musician and so it at the same time makes perfect sense composer he draws on these inspirations together with the melodic dimensions of the and translateElegy them into sounds. oforiginal Skies compositions. The playful opening theme of “Fire” develops As if to emphasize that this is an album by into a musical dialogue. The different a drummer that is also a composer, the last instruments move in and out of focus, and track, “Elegy of Skies 2 (in memoriam)” opens the composition feels like a conversation with atmospheric drums and percussion, Sverre Gjørvad is a storyteller, and has and Dag Okstad on bass, and in their between them, but the kind of conversation together with percussive piano figures.
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