Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Rosenhagtorn (2024) (Hi-Res)

Swedish jazz pianist and composer Isabell Gustafsson-Ny deconstructs folk music on 'Rosenhagtorn', taking a minimalist's approach as she strips familiar concepts down to their barest bones to encourage deep listening and focus on repetitions and harmonics. When she was working on the album, Gustafsson-Ny imagined it as a house with each song playing in a different room. This allowed her to pare her ideas down considerably, working often with just single melodic lines that phase and repeat, allowing us to take in the character of the instrument and perceive the tiniest compositional phrases. On the intro for example, scratchy Northern European fiddle sounds are slowed down to enhance the tonal variations; it's over in two minutes, but readies us for 'Upprepning', a short, rhythmic piano study that sounds like Steve Reich playing casually in someone's front room. It's the tiny details that makes the album so transfixing; even when Gustafsson-Ny is venturing further from discernible folk music, she takes the effort to absorb similar sonic characteristics. So the pedal sounds and room tones become additional instruments - she doesn't need field recordings, we're right there.

When she introduces her voice on 'Fiolröst', it hovers over the sustained fiddle phrases with an invitingly anxious restrain, wavering in just the same way as the instrument itself. This makes the finale, 'Rosenhagtorn Och Björksly/Coda' feel so much weightier, as if the doors to each room fly open and the ensemble is united. Gustafsson-Ny sings in smoky tones over piano at first that creaks as she moves - organs wheeze and hum, and it's as close as we get to a proper song.

Tracklist:
1 - Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Intro (1:54)
2 - Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Upprepning (2:41)
3 - Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Genom Fönstret (2:49)
4 - Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - 26 Juli (0:47)
5 - Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Ur Flöde (2:03)
6 - Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Fiolröst (1:37)
7 - Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Klanger (1:01)
8 - Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Rosenhagtorn Och Björksly/Coda (4:44)