dans les arbres
There’s rare lyricism in the way Dans les arbres use extended techniques. Standard instrumental sounds are few and far between, but despite all the rustling, screeching and chiming, the Franco-Norwegian quartet operates in an almost meditative mode. This is made possible by the meticulous care with which each sound is embedded in the (improvised) whole. The music of Dans les arbres unfolds slowly, often verging on silence, yet always in multiple layers, where individual instruments - prepared piano, guitar, bass drum and cymbals, clarinet - intermingle in an enchanting soundscape without a note of hierarchy. Pianist Christian Wallumrød is one of Norway's best-known jazz musicians, while his compatriots, guitarist Ivar Grydeland and drummer Ingar Zach, play regularly with leading Scandinavian and international artists (Zach has performed with Arve Henriksen, for example). And the French clarinetist Xavier Charles is interested in noise and electroacoustics in addition to classical improvisation (among others with The Ex). In Dans les arbres, all this experience is then translated into something subtle, melancholy and above all inventive.
