After the Wildfire Jan Bang, Eivind Aarset, Arve Henriksen

• 1 Seeing (Eyes Closed) 04:23
• 2 Acacia 05:31
• 3 Meridian Moon 03:05
• 4 Grassland 04:42
• 5 Halfway Between Noon and Sunset 03:54
• 6 Pehlivan Fighters 01:49
• 7 Abandoned Cathedral II 04:16
• 8 Remnants 03:13
• Total Runtime 30:53

Info zu After the Wildfire

Commissioned by the Skopje Jazz Festival for its 42nd edition in 2023, After the Wildfire — the new album by Jan Bang and Arve Henriksen — was first performed in Skopje with the FAMES Institute Orchestra and Macedonian voices, arranged and conducted by Džijan Emin. That premiere revealed a music that hovered between genres, at once ambient, folkloric, and symphonic, “with its main feature being innovation and creativity,” as Nenad Giorgevski wrote.

The album itself grows directly from those premiere recordings. At its heart is the quartet of Bang (live sampling, electronics), Henriksen (trumpet, voice), Eivind Aarset (guitar, electronics), and Ingar Zach (percussion), their elemental dialogue set within the orchestral textures shaped by Emin and the FAMES musicians. To this foundation, new studio recordings made at Punkt Studio were later added — including “Seeing (Eyes Closed),” “Halfway Between Noon and Sunset,” and “Remnants” — featuring Bang, Henriksen, and Aarset. The result is a work that moves between live and studio, collective and intimate, each piece emerging as a scene, an apparition, a fragment of survival: the sound of performance transformed into lasting resonance.

The opening, “Seeing (Eyes Closed),” sets trumpet against haunted pianola music in consuming darkness, a paradoxical inward vision, where the shutting of eyes opens a new sight. Sound itself becomes a form of dream-seeing. “Acacia” follows as a fanfare of humanity across a savanna of sound, warm and braided with sorrow, perhaps a tale of love and loss wrapped in ornament and echo, resilience in aridness, thorned grace surviving heat. “Meridian Moon” catches the eerie instant when time and light align, underpinned by a wandering sky.“Grassland” is tense and spacious: a silent hunt, a low growling and the textural padding of predatory feet, this is music of vast unobstructed terrain, where stillness conceals unseen lives moving in stealth beneath the tall grass.

“Halfway Between Noon and Sunset” pulses with a near-mechanical inevitability, a liminal clock, precise yet haunted, while “Pehlivan Fighters” surges with Sufi-infused ecstatic energy, folk heroes of the soul rising before an invisible crowd, ritual contest as communal celebration, rhythm as both muscle and spirit. “Abandoned Cathedral II” is the de-configuring of architecture itself: entropic unmotion, where present haunts past and past haunts present, each rationalising with the other in a revisitation of loss. Finally, “Remnants” leaves only a dull sparkle, the shimmer of light on dark water, where the definite dissolves into suggestion: Sparse and brittle, it is the afterimage that lingers, what survives after the fire. Threaded throughout is a meditation on the strength of nature against the impermanence of human endeavour, a sound-poem in the shadow of Shelley’s Ozymandias.

"What “After the Wildfire” achieves is less about linear progression and more about atmosphere – a series of shifting tableaux, sometimes breathtaking, sometimes bewildering. The orchestral presence enriches but also complicates the balance, giving a sense of grandeur but occasionally overwhelming the intimacy that Bang and Henriksen excel at. As a listening experience, it’s both compelling and elusive: music that hovers in ambiguity, never settling, always flickering. A fascinating but rather uneven journey." (Mike Gates, ukvibe.org)

Arve Henriksen, trumpet, vocals
Jan Bang, live sampling
Eivind Aarset, guitar, electronics
Ingar Zach, percussion

Arve Henriksen
born in 1968 and a graduate of the Trondheim Conservatory, began playing international stages in 1989. He made his debut on ECM in 1998 as part of Christian Wallumrød’s trio on the album No Birch and has continued to record frequently for the label ever since. Besides his contributions to Wallumrød’s shape-shifting ensembles, Henriksen has appeared on albums by Trygve Seim, Arild Andersen, Jon Balke, Sinikka Langeland and Frode Haltli. His own leader-date for ECM, 2010’s Cartography saw the trumpeter partner up with electronic musician Jan bang, guitarist Eivind Aarset, drummer Audun Kleive and the Trio Mediaeval, among many others. Down Beat described it as “ethereal ambient music created with a painterly touch and marked by a fine melodic sensibility”.

Henriksen also collaborated with pianist Tigran Hamasyan on the 2016 recording Atmosphères, along with Jang Bang and Eivind Aarset. The Guardian said that “the pairing of Hamasyan and Henriksen brings an unexpectedly song-based seductiveness to the all-improv session”, concluding that “the sounds (…) announce the arrival of an elite collective with a distinctive identity and big potential”.

On Uma Elmo, released in 2022, Henriksen can be heard alongside Danish guitarist Jakob Bro and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy, improvising in an intimate trio setting that gives each instrument much space to breathe. BBC Music Magazine had high praise for the album: “Danish guitarist Jakob Bro’s new recording is quintessential ECM: a small group of intensely talented individuals making rarefied music in the moment, captured by superb production values.”

The duo debut Touch of Time of Henriksen’s work with Dutch pianist Harmen Fraanje will be released in early 2024

Jan Bang
is a Norwegian musician and record producer, known from several albums and collaborations over many years with musicians like Sidsel Endresen,Eivind Aarset, Arve Henriksen, Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Hamid Drake, Tigran Hamasyan, Nils Petter Molvær, and Erik Honoré - the latter of which he co-founded the Punkt festival with in 2005.

Bang coined the term Live Sampling in 1996. He is one of Norway’s most accomplished and influential producers and the epithet electronic mastermind has stayed with him for a long time and with good reason. Bang is the kind of musical innovator and bridge-builder who consistently manages to balance progressive thinking with popular appeal. He is always looking for ways of moving music and people forward, and by creating new meeting places and musical intersections. Bang is a professor of electronic music at the University of Agder, Norway.

Eivind Aarset
is a guitarist with a unique musical vision that absorbs and reflects all manner of music while retaining an enviable individualism and high quality craftsmanship that can span from quiet intimacy to searing intensity. His debut as a bandleader on Jazzland Recordings was described by the New York Times as "One of the best post-Miles electric jazz albums," setting a high benchmark that Aarset has consistently met and exceeded, both in the studio and in live performance.

As one of Norway's most in-demand guitarists, Eivind Aarset has worked with Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Bill Laswell, Jan Garbarek, Paolo Fresu, Marilyn Mazur, J.Peter Schwalm, Mike Manieri, Marc Ducret, Michel Benitas Ethics, Martux-M, Stefano Battaglia, Michele Rabbia, Talvin Singh, and Andy Sheppard. He has worked with Nils Petter Molvaer's band, (appearing on all of Molvaer's albums, including the breakthrough album "Khmer" and 2006's award-winning "ER"). He also has collaborated with Dhafer Youssef, both live and in the studio.

Aarset's musical awakening happened when, at the age of 12, he heard Jimi Hendrix. "I started on the guitar as soon as I heard him," he recalls with a smile. "I bought a second hand Hendrix record and that was it. Then I started getting into rock bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Santana and Pink Floyd before my brother introduced me to the music of Miles Davis, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report and Return to Forever. After a while, I got into the ECM sound of Jan Garbarek, and Terje Rypdal, who was a big influence. Then I went on the road with a fulltime heavy metal band, a fantastic experience, until I got tired of being angry every night! Then I quit and became a session musician."

As part of the band, Ab & Zu, he created the unique guitar style and sound he would later develop further as part of saxophonist Bendik Hofseth's group. However, it was his involvement with Bugge Wesseltoft and the Oslo Jazz underground that crystallized the sound he was seeking: "What drew me to this music was the hypnotic grooves and musical freedom I found," says Eivind. "There's no established rules or tradition in what I am doing, you can make the rules up as you go along. Rhythm is the centre of the music, the landscape the soloist travels through. It's fresh territory and I have no idea where this scene will end up, but there's a lot of great sounds and new music being created which makes it such an exciting scene."

Ingar Zach
is known for his research in sound production and alternative techniques in contemporary percussion. During his career he has developed a unique style using the Gran Cassa as the main source of sound exploration where he employs transducers with various objects to make the drum vibrate. He works in the field of contemporary music and is regularly touring worldwide and recording with his fixed ensembles; Dans les arbres, Huntsville and O3 alongside his solo- and collaborative projects. As a composer he is active in his regular ensembles, and he is continuously working with developing his solo work. In recent years he is composing for ensembles like Ensemble MusikFabrik, Quatuor Bozzini, Speak Percussion, Pinquins and Ludus Gravis. His solo work is used in different genres, such as film, dance, and art performances. Ingar Zach is currently a Ph.D. candidate in artistic research at the Academy of Music in Oslo.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet