Emil Karlsen is a young drummer from Norway, but who studied on the jazz course at Leeds Conservatoire, and has settled in that city, seemingly feeling more at home in the UK improvised music scene rather than on the Norwegian scene. He is constantly coming up with new projects, and in the last few years he has toured and recorded with Philipp Wachsmann and Neil Metcalfe, recorded with Ed Jones and Matt Bourne, and is now playing a leading role with Bead Records, the label set up in 1974, and run by Philipp Wachsmann and Matthew Hutchinson.
Bead Records has over the years brought out 40 albums and featured 60 musicians. Its latest releases both feature Emil, one in a collaboration with light.box, the group with Alex Bonney and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, the other a drum duet with Mark Sanders, who was Emil’s main teacher at Leeds Conservatoire.
The album with light.box, (The Undanced Dance, Bead 44) has three tracks, the first two divided into three parts, the third into two parts. It is an album of electronic music and percussion with some very punchy trumpet and electric bass playing added into the mix. It is therefore more grounded and rhythmic than some more ambient electronic music. On The Shot Must Fall the atmosphere created varies across the three parts; Pt 1 has a slight ominous and mysterious mood, Pt 2 has more of a drone feel, while Pt 3 is more playful in an abstract way. Emil is always playing something interesting, sometimes creating choppy rhythms, at other times providing a cymbal wash, but always generating a strong pulse. Alex Bonney enters on trumpet at various points, occasionally reminding me of Miles Davis’ playing on Bitches Brew.
On Loosing The Shot, Pt 1 is dominated by the drums playing over an electronic drone, while in Pt 2 the electronics become dominant creating a gentler ambiance. Pt 3 focusses much more on sound effects generated by the electronics
Pt 1 of the final track, The Unmoved Movement, returns to the mysterious mood of the first track, while Pt 2 builds up in intensity through repetition and an initial minimalist approach that becomes much stronger and more dramatic.
Muted Language (Bead 45) features a series of duets between Emil and Mark Sanders. It is a charming and delightful album with a series of 6 tracks with a different character rather than a straight through improvisation. It was brilliantly recorded by Chris Sharkey, and one has the feeling that one is sitting in the front row at a concert hearing all the different nuances in the playing. There is also a really perceptive sleeve note by Phil Durrant that gives an excellent guide to the music on the CD.
The playing throughout the album is varied with each track having its own character. At times it is very interactive with the two drummers reacting spontaneously in the moment to what the other is doing. On other tracks, e.g. Track 2, Words Not Spoken, Emil creates a big sound on the toms and cymbals which is complemented by Mark’s more detailed rhythmic reactions on his drums. There is usually an arc with the music building to a peak and then coming down. One track, Track 3, Dialectic Dialects, begins interactively, but moves into a passage that has more of a soundscape feel. Track 5, Muted Language, creates an air of mystery through the use of cymbals and small percussion objects. The final track, Parting Of Ways, is extremely interactive with each player clearly listening very carefully to what they other is doing – as, in fact, they do throughout the recording.
I’d love to hear both groups in a live situation, but in the meantime I strongly recommend these two albums.
TDE Promotions 