Calling Signals 07 from Cafe Sting

Seven days after recording Quiddity (LT019) in London, Louis and I flew to Norway to play at Cafe Sting in Stavanger. A cheap flight took us to Haugesund. Declining the two hour bus journey to Stavanger we decided to take the boat. In severe weather conditions and with no vacant seats we stood at the back of the saloon gripping the seats in front of us, knees bent, riding the waves, through the aptly named Bonkafjorden. Nick Stephens

“Eivind One Pedersen, who furnishes the music with a prosperity of salubrious harmonic ambiguity enriched by stimulating clusters, working nicely within the wavering frameworks generated by the drums and the bass. Stephens exhibits figurations that growl and murmur, pumping oxygen into the communal tissue, elsewhere plucking single notes of positive circumspection. When he’s not probing the insides of self-reflection, Gjerstad looks for precious upper partials, chaining them in garlands of irrational subtlety. A coexistence of solitary wanderers producing collective materials that sound both optimistically assertive and thoroughly consistent.”
Massimo Ricci – Touching Extremes See full review at http://touchingextremes.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/loose-torque-quintet

“Coming On The Bonkafjorden is a four-part suite designed to in some ways approximate the severe weather conditions the drummer and bassist experienced during a boat trip on a Norwegian fjord. Putting aside any programmatic accuracy, the 34-minute group improvisation features enough liquid expended by the reedist and enough stressed sound waves from the rhythm instruments to approximate the journey. Throughout Pederson concentrates on sloshing and shuddering asides, usually expressed in quadruple counterpoint with the other players’ playing. Juddering squeezes from the accordion’s bellows and keys are highlighted alongside sluicing, altissimo clarinet vibrations, plunks and sul ponticello runs from the bassist and the drummer’s drags, rebounds and ruffs. Stephens’ sequence of strums, then staccato bow action re-orients the suite, with Pederson’s thrusts and sputters accompanying reed chirps to downshift the tempo to moderato; and an outpouring of cascading chords aids Moholo-Moholo in keeping the overall irregular vibrations glued to chromatic motions.”
Ken Waxman – Jazz Word http://www.jazzword.com/review/127669