The Squid's Ear Magazine


Nakama: Worst Generation (Nakama Records)

Freely improvised and unusual collective improv from the quintet of Christian Meaas Svendsen (double bass), Andreas Wildhagen (drums), Ayumi Nataka (piano), Adrian Loseth Waade (violin) and Agness Hvizdalek (voice), an abstract yet energetic album with Hvizdalek's voice adding an exotic edge to extended techniques based in free jazz strategies.
 

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Personnel:



Agnes Hvizdalek-voice

Adrian Loseth Waade-violin

Ayumi Tanaka-piano

Andreas Wildhagen-drums

Christian Meaas Svendsen-bass


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Label: Nakama Records
Catalog ID: NKM013CD
Squidco Product Code: 26109

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2017
Country: Norway
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Amann Studio, in Vienna, Austria, in May, 2017, by Christoph Amann.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Socrates said, some 2000 years ago: "The children nowadays love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise". In the eyes of the elders, the youth is always representing a worse generation. In today's western world there still lives a total of 5 historically distinguishable generations. The track titles on Nakama's 4th album is named after them. Zooming out in both time and space and looking at the current state of the world these five generations must truly be the "Worst Generation" ever in human history. They are all part of- and have contributed to the current state of affairs. Paradoxically, new generations also bring with them a sense of hope and change. Maybe when we look back again 100 years from now this Generation turns out to be the best one?! Worst Generation is Nakama's first album with the group's new member Agnes Hvizdalek. It is also the group's first fully improvised album. The titleson the CD is in English on one side and Japanese on the other with the imprint in beautiful gloss. The LP version is in lenticular - the motif changes when viewed from a different angle! One thing is always something different and at the same time two sides of the same coin..."-Nakama Records



"This is the fourth album by the Norwegian ensemble called Nakama, led by bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen, which also includes violinist Adrian Løseth Waade, pianist Ayumi Tanaka and drummer Andreas Wildhagen, and also for the first time the new member of the ensemble, vocalist Agnes Hvizdalek. The album presents five improvised pieces, all credited to the ensemble.

The decision to move towards completely Improvised Music represents the new direction Nakama is pursuing on this album, letting go of all pre-composed elements and immersing into extreme spontaneously created avant-garde music. As a result the music on this album is even more difficult and estranged than their previous recordings, which might limit their contact with the established followers' base.

Devoid of any clear melodic / harmonic / rhythmic elements, the listener is faced with an abstract expressionist collection of sounds, free to react to those sonic stimuli completely unrestrained by any cognitive limitations. As a result this music might sound completely different to each and every listener, with varying degrees of conceptual communication. Perhaps this is the strongest asset of this music, which expands the communication between the ensemble members further towards the listeners as well.

In spite of the abstract nature of this music, it is neither chaotic nor aggressive. I had no problem to listen to the entire album from the very first time and in fact quite enjoyed it, as I might have enjoyed an exhibition of abstract painting or any other form of abstract Art. Despite the weird and eerie external, there is some internal aesthetic in these improvisations, which manages to come through and touch the listener. This is quite rare occasion when extreme avant-garde manages to personally touch my musical perception so profoundly, which of course I find quite miraculous.

Overall this is an album for a small and "brave" group of hyper-adventurous listeners, who are able to free themselves from all pre-conceptions and miss-conceptions and dive head first into the big unknown. Some of those people might even emerge with a smile on their face, like yours truly."-Adam Baruch, The Soundtrack of my Life

Also available on vinyl LP.
Get additional information at The Soundtrack of My Life

Artist Biographies

"Agnes Hvizdalek is an improvising musician originating from Vienna's experimental music scene and is based in Oslo and Vienna. From an early age, she has dedicated her life to new music and her fascination with the human voice. She celebrates this in her abstract vocal music, for which she has received international acclaim. Always exploring new horizons, Hvizdalek has engaged in numerous cross-disciplinary collaborations merging voice and visual and performance art, dance, theatre, film, writing."

-Agnes Hvizdalek Website (http://agneshvizdalek.at/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Adrian Løseth Waade is a violinist/composer known from groups such as Skadedyr, Trondheim Jazz-Orchestra and the Swedish/Norwegian quartet Bone Machine. Adrian is looking to develop the violin as a tool for both free and structured improvisation, and create frameworks in order to make the instrument sound in new, interesting ways. He incorporates both old and new, rhythmic and classical music in his work."

-Nakama Records (http://www.nakamarecords.no/adrian-lseth-waade/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Ayumi Tanaka is a Japanese pianist, composer and improviser living in Norway. She leads her own trio together with drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and fellow Nakama-member Christian Meaas Svendsen on bass. Her curiosity about the possibilities of combining ideas from different styles of music and thoughts make her music unique and fresh in an organic way. Attracted by the communicative powers of music, her motivation for creating music is to open the listener's heart, and create a space which is free from ethnicity, culture and history."

-Nakama Records (http://www.nakamarecords.no/ayumi-tanaka)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Andreas Wildhagen was raised in Oslo and attended the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2012, earning his Masters degree in 2014. He is a sought-after jazz drummer and participates on a series of records with bands like like Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, Nakama, Lana Trio, Momentum, Jonas Cambien Trio, and Mopti. He has released a solo drum album in 2016 on the Nakama Records label, No Right No Left"

3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Svendsen started his jazz career within Kongsberg Big Band, was a year at Toneheim folkehøgskole and later studied Performing jazz music at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In 2007 he was awarded Kongsberg Jazzfestival's talent scholarship. During the Kongsberg Jazzfestival in 2010, Svendsen referred to as The festival's busiest musician by Laagendalsposten[1] when he performed seven gigs in different constellations during the festival. In 2011 he received Kongsberg Municipality's Cultural Grant.[2] for sitt arbeid med byens tradisjonelle julejam.

Together with his own quintet Mopti he won the 2012 JazzIntro award.[3][4] After this he has performed among others with the brilliant Japanese pianist and band leader Ayumi Tanaka in the band Nakama with the release Before The Storm (2015) and the exiting Ayumi Tanaka Trio with the release Momento (2016)."-Wikipedia

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Meaas_Svendsen)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. The Lucky Few 7:50

2. Baby Boomers 5:53

3. Gen X 5:08

4. Millennials 9:25

5. Plurals 10:26

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation and Experimental Forms
Quintet Recordings
Unusual Vocal Forms

Search for other titles on the label:
Nakama Records.


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