PAPER TRIO Hippo Road (CD Time Span Records TSRCD202406)
14 etudes of Randi, Thomas and Greg put into one mighty set where improvised music blends with intuition, impossible dynamics and abstract and non-linear narrative.
Somewhere between free jazz, open form improvisations, sonorous textures and frenetic type of dynamics it won't let you sit down in one place.
It is pretty difficult to list all the influences and bits that you can associate with. I feel this is unnecessary and also leaves more space for things that can drive your imagination wherever you take it.
Excellent part of it - is just impossible array of technicality to the play of all the musicians here as well as their education .yes, it is all abstract but at the same time intoxicating and involving.
Thomas Agergaard, born in 1962 and raised in Charlottenlund near Copenhagen.
He started playing the flute as a child and later also played the tenor and soprano saxophones. Today, he works as a composer, musician, and conductor, with several critically acclaimed releases to his name. He attended a yoga course in 1978 and received permission to practice if it took place outdoors in the forest. This practice resulted in a focus on sound, becoming part of everything, a presence and connection with the sounds we encounter in our daily lives. In music, it’s about listening and blending with fellow musicians so that two or more instruments sound as one.
He is the initiator of several cultural events and has held a number of exhibitions as a visual artist. Throughout his career, he has engaged in interdisciplinary collaboration within culture, history, and science.
In recent years, he has collaborated with astrophysicist Uffe Gråe Jørgensen on communication and concert activities. Historian: Christopher Jacob Ries.
Co-founder of the Nature Listening Association, which communicates the climate and biodiversity crises through art and culture by professionals.
2017 Resident artist at Christiansborg: Forgotten Beats, performed at the Charlottenborg Autumn Exhibition, recordings of politicians' heartbeats (pulse) regarding where the heart was in what took place. The project included a text side made up of meetings that I set up, all addressing relevant societal themes that experts contributed their input to. Including MRSA, where Hans Henrik Kolmos (OUH), the Consumer Council, 3F, SEGES, Agriculture and Food, COOP participated. Another meeting was THE GREEN GDP (Jens Villiam Hoff and a committee from Statistics Denmark). Social Control among young immigrant boys and girls in Nørrebro (anonymous participants).
Katrine Gislinge (piano), Tobias van der Pals (cello), Kinder Kinder Festival: Hamburg, Messer, String Quintet, Reed5, Open Dance, The Danish Saxophone Quartet, Copenhagen Art Ensemble, TONEART Ensemble, Exhibition Short Myths and Stories at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.
TA has played with the following musicians among others:
Django Bates, Miroslav Vitous, Andrew Hill, Nils Petter Molvær, John Tchicai, Peter Ole Jørgensen, Zapolski Quartet, Tim Berne, Marc Ducret, Jim Black, Hank Roberts, Scott Colley, Nasheet Waits, Herb Robertson, Ra Kalam, Bob Moses, Greg Cohen. Randi Pontoppidan, Artur Tuznik.
TA serves on the Danish Composers' Association Project Committee 2023. TA was on the jury for Restart in 2024 (new works for classical ensembles to be performed again).
Randi Pontoppidan is an internationally acclaimed artist, improviser and composer, working with free improvisation, jazz, performance art, electroacoustic composition and sound
poetry. She creates vast sonic landscapes full of organic warmth and poetic sensibility, and is known for her extended vocal techniques, often mixed with live electronic processing. She has been likened to Diamanda Galás and Maja S. K. Ratkje. She works with jazz luminaries including Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Joëlle Léandre, Sissel Vera Pettersen and Peter Bruun. Pontoppidan is also an in-demand vocalist in the contemporary classical world, working with Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices and members of Damkapellet and the vocal ensemble IKI. She was nominated for best album, Danish Music Award Jazz 2022 and 2021 and in 2020 nominated for a Steppeulven award - best vocalist in Denmark. Pontoppidan explores the outer limits and deepest secrets of the human voice.
Greg Cohen (1953) US
Besides his life as a bass player, Greg Cohen has been teaching music in Berlin. For over 10 years, he was a full professor of music at the Jazz-Institut-Berlin until 2022. Now he lives in Los Angeles.
Cohen has also worked as an arranger, producer, musical director and composer for the theater, film, television and recording studios. The recordings he has been a part of have received various critical acclaim -including the Pulitzer Prize (Ornette Coleman), gold records and many album of the year awards.
He has worked with a variety of artists in many styles of music. From A (Woody Allen, Laurie Anderson, Fiona Apple) To Z (John Zorn, Tom Ze).
Some of the artists in-between are Susana Baca, Danny Barker, Bar Kokhba, Hal Blaine, Brian Blade, David Byrne, Carlinhos Brown, Bono Gal Costa, Ornette Coleman, Elvis Costello, Conte Condoli, Sheryl Crow, Uri Caine, Holly Cole, Chas ’n Dave, Rosanne Cash, Vinicio Caposselo, James Carter, Bob Dylan, Dave Douglas, Donovan, Francesco De Gregori, Eddy Davis, Kenny Davern Teddy Edwards, Brian Eno, Marty Ehrlich, Hamid El Kasri Bill Frisell, Marianne Faithfull, Mark Feldman, Victor Feldman, Crystal Gayle, Ben Goldberg, Gypsy Kings, Marty Grosz, Bebel Gilberto Jesse Harris, Billy Higgins, Herbert Hardesty, Keith Ingham, Norah Jones, Antony Johnson, Joe Jackson, Sir Tom Jones, Sir Elton John, Billy Joel, Dr. John Lee Konitz, Haino Keiji, Kronos Quartet, Dagmar Krause, Jim Keltner Gary Lucas, Greg Leisz, Awa Ly, Shelly Manne, Marisa Monte, Masada, Masada String Trio, Mischa Mengelberg, Geoff Muldauer, Bette Midler, Giovanna Marini, Willie Nelson, Randy Newman Odetta, Madeleine Peyroux, Ken Peplowski, Marc Ribot, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Annie Ross, Ron Sexsmith, Bruce Springsteen, Tim Sparks, Sting, Little Jimmy Scott, Ed Sanders, Chango Spasiuk, Jamie Saft, The Surfers, David Sanborn, Dino Saluzzi, Tricky, Tommy Tedesco, James Taylor, Gianmaria Testa, Tom Waits, Victoria Williams, Charlie Watts, Loudon Wainwright, Kenny Werner, Kenny Wollesen et al.
Randi Pontoppidan - voice, paper & live electronic processing
Thomas Agergaard - alto flute, soprano, tenor saxophone & paper
Greg Cohen - double bass & paper
Produced by Greg Cohen, Kæv Gliemann, Thomas Agergaard & Randi Pontoppidan
Recorded at Kæv Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark
Mixed and mastered by Kæv Production
Cover Art by Morten Agergaard
Photo by Klaus Holsting
All music (c) 2023 by Paper Trio
All rights reserved. Supported by Koda Culture Funds and Danish Arts Foundation
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