The star of Trio Ramberget‘s self-titled sixth album isn’t Trio Ramberget, but a “fourth player”, a big oil cistern on the island of Svanö, Sweden, in which the album was recorded. While it’s unclear how many people can fit in such a cistern, while listening, one yearns for the live experience; such is the gorgeous reverberation, the echo, the decay.
Released on New Year’s Day, Trio Ramberget is perfectly suited to the sprawl of deep winter and the contemplations of a new year. There are no markers in the slow, six-part suite, which flows together as one, although the tone changes subtly from piece to piece: for example, the peering into a higher register in the second part. The trombone, bass clarinet and double bass find themselves in conversational territory with each other and their surroundings, as if the metal is speaking back.
Even the cover speaks of winter: a lone figure, dressed for the cold, looking away from the camera into the untamed night. The music follows suit, highlighting the extended tones and the intervals in-between. In Gothenburg, Sweden, there are only six hours and forty-one minutes of daylight on New Year’s Day, just over seven hours today. The light is returning, although in the bite of winter it is difficult to perceive. The latter part of the third piece seems like a promise: the illumination will return, and in the meantime there is music moving below the ice, slow as a nearly-frozen fish.
By the beginning of the fourth movement, the music has grown more turbulent, although the term is relative given the virtually non-existent tempo. One can sense the tug of war between the past and the present, the dark and the light. By the end, the piece has turned reflective, a mood that carries into part five; but the quietude seems more peaceful, less forlorn, especially when Pelle Westlin begins singing wordlessly, vowels lingering in the air like breath frost.
By the time the trio winds down, one is left with a feeling of deep peace, no longer yearning for the end of winter, but fully invested in the season, like a large cistern that cherishes every note, making it last as long as it can. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 