Daniel Herskedal

“The Roc”

(Edition Records EDN 1084)

This represents a rather late review of Norwegian tuba virtuoso Daniel Herskedal’s third album for the UK based Edition record label which was first released in February 2017.

Herskedal first came to the attention of British jazz audiences in 2012 with the release of “Neck of the Woods”, his Edition label, début, an intimate duo set recorded with his compatriot, saxophonist Marius Neset.

Herskedal was the principal writer on “Neck of the Woods”, an album that was often surprisingly haunting, tender and beautiful, words not always associated with the sometimes lugubrious tuba.  I was lucky enough to witness Herskedal and Neset playing music from “Neck Of The Woods” at a remarkable gig at Dempsey’s in Cardiff in September 2012, a spellbinding performance of the utmost intimacy and beauty and very different from the explosive nature of Neset’s shows leading his own groups.

In 2015 Herskedal followed this success with “Slow Eastbound Train”, an album that placed an even greater emphasis on Herskedal the composer. It was a richly textured, often beautiful album with many of the pieces exhibiting a true cinematic quality. The album was recorded with the help of pianist Eyolf Dale and percussionist Helge Andreas Norbakken plus members of the Trondheim soloists, Norway’s leading string chamber orchestra.

“Neck of the Woods” saw Herskedal exploring Norwegian folk forms but its follow up saw him reaching further east and south to China, India and Africa, yet approaching these elements with a chamber music sensibility. “Slow Eastbound Train” was also very well received by the UK jazz community and in 2015 Herskedal performed the music with a seven piece Anglo-Norwegian ensemble at a brilliant performance at Kings Place as part of that year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. Such was the success of that event that Herskedal was invited back in 2016 to perform a set of newly commissioned music featuring his trio (with Dale on piano and Gerd Nilssen at the drums) in a collaboration with the BBC Concert Orchestra. 

Herskedal studied with Django Bates at the Rhythmic Conservatoire in Copenhagen and together with Neset was a member of Bates’ StoRMChaser big band. He brings a unique sensibility to the tuba and is a musician who combines an astonishing technical facility with a highly developed aesthetic sense. He has effectively created a whole new vocabulary for the instrument..  However for all his technical prowess on both the tuba and the lesser known bass trumpet it is his writing and arranging qualities that have impressed the most on his recordings thus far.

In many respects “The Roc” represents a direct follow up to “Slow Eastbound Train” in that it again emphasises Herskedal’s continuing fascination with non-Western music. This time round the core group is a quintet featuring Herskedal on tuba and bass trumpet, Dale on piano and Norbakken on percussion plus Bergmund Waal Skaslien on viola and Svante Henryson on cello. The latter is familiar to me through his earlier duo collaboration with pianist Kjetil Bjornstad on the album “Night Song” (ECM, 2011).

The ten Herskedal originals on “The Roc” often have highly descriptive titles with the music frequently possessing a similarly cinematic quality. Piano and percussion pace the opening “The Seeds of Language” as Herskedal’s deep, richly resonant tuba sounds combine effectively with the timbres of the strings. But it’s Dale’s flowing piano lyricism that constitutes the heart of the piece.

The album as a whole is strongly influenced by Arabic music and by Herskedal’s travels to Syria (in 2008) Lebanon and Palestine. The title track, scheduled second in the running order, takes its name from the giant bird of Pan-Asian mythology. Pizzicato strings and the patter of percussion introduce the piece before Dale’s piano and the leader’s astonishingly agile tuba lines add to the rhythmic complexities. There’s a genuinely Middle Eastern feel to the piece, even when Herskedal’s extraordinary tuba playing comes to the fore as it does in the second half of the tune.

Following the rhythmic busyness of the title track “Eternal Sunshine Creates A Desert” represents an oasis of calm with its sumptuous brass and string textures and long, legato lines. It’s richly atmospheric, evoking images of mirages shimmering in the desert.

“Kurd, Bayat, Nahawand To Kurd” is named not after a journey but after musical scales. Nevertheless the feeling is still one of a voyage of musical discography as the piece unfolds with its Arabic rhythms incorporating not just percussion but also pizzicato strings and piano. The string players also deliver some wonderfully colourful and exotic playing with the bow as the leader’s tuba nimbly weaves its way in and out of the proceedings.

One can almost feel the heat on the richly atmospheric “Hijaz Train Station” with the exotic drone of the strings teamed with the eerie, high register sounds of Herskedal’s tuba. These are complemented by Dale’s sparse piano chording and the shimmer of Norbakken’s percussion.
The piece is thematically linked to “Thurayya Railways” which follows immediately and is equally evocative, although far more vibrant rhythmically, with Norbakken’s percussion a particularly integral part of the arrangement. Also essential to the success of the piece is the beguiling interaction between strings and brass.

“The Afrit” is named after a mythological winged demon and emerges from a free-form passage of percussion and interior piano scrapings to embrace the rich, dark, ominous textures generated by the combination of brass and strings.

Named for an Arabic saying “There are Three Things You Cannot Hide; Love, Smoke And A Man Riding On A Camel” boasts the longest title on the album. It begins with a passage of almost impossibly grainy cello from Henryson before mutating into a beguiling mix of Arabian exotica with the strings, both bowed and plucked, at the heart of the arrangement. Between them Henryson and Skaslien produce some astonishing sounds, aided along the way by Norbakken’s equally exotic percussion.

“The Kroderen Line” marks a return to the railway theme, but this time the location is an historic line in Norway. Herskedal’s lithe tuba combines effectively with the strings and there’s a thoughtful but expansive piano solo from Dale on a piece that understandably has more of a ‘European’ feel to it, yet still sounds utterly distinctive.

The closing “All That Has Happened, Happened As Fate Willed” also has something of a “European” aesthetic and represents an appropriately elegiac conclusion to a very fine album.
Classical and minimalist influences imbue a piece with a pronounced filmic quality that contains particularly noteworthy contributions from Skaslien, Henryson and Dale, whose mesmerising piano runs through the fabric of the piece.

With “The Roc” Daniel Herskedal has again created a unique sound world that is evocative, thought provoking, and frequently downright beautiful. The music invokes a strong sense of place and exhibits a distinct cinematic quality.

The leader remains arguably the most distinctive exponent of the tuba around but this time the focus is even less on Herskedal’s individual virtuosity and even more on the compositions and arrangements and the overall ensemble sound. It’s an approach that has garnered Herskedal considerable critical and public acclaim and, like his compatriot and former collaborator Neset, he’s a musician who seems to have found a special place in the hearts of British jazz audiences.

No other tuba player sounds quite like Herskedal, but more importantly no one else writes quite like him either. Herskedal’s melding of jazz, classical and various strands of world music is genuinely ground breaking, experimental yet often utterly beautiful at the same time. It’s a rare combination, and an even rarer talent that brings them together so successfully. 

 

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