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Samuel H?llkvist: Epik Didaktik Pastoral

By Chris May
July 19, 2020
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Samuel Hällkvist: Epik Didaktik Pastoral

Swedish guitarist

Samuel Hällkvist

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Samuel H?llkvist's rifftastic electric trio plays an exhilarating mixture of jazz, prog rock and minimalist music. Riffs aside, the key ingredients are cross rhythms, rhythmic displacement and lavish servings of MIDI-enabled keyboards and tuned percussion. The result is heavy on the tension and light on the release. A close comparator is Swiss keyboard player

Nik Bärtsch

piano
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Nik B?rtsch's work with Ronin in the mid 2000s. Try and keep count of the beats and you might well go mad. Better to let go, feel the force and enjoy the ride.

H?llkvist is a frequent collaborator with British-Bahraini trumpeter

Yazz Ahmed

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Yazz Ahmed, who is heard on two tracks here to winning effect. The pair first met in Sweden on a development project involving Jazz i Malmo and London's Tomorrow's Warriors. H?llkvist admired Ahmed's ability to make "the most complex music sound natural and beautiful." Ahmed admired "the very attractive oddness" about H?llkvist's approach to the guitar. H?llkvist played on Ahmed's La Saboteuse (Naim, 2017) and Polyhymnia (Naim, 2019), and Ahmed played on H?llkvist's Return To Centre (2013) and Variety Of Live (2015). On her Epik Didaktik Pastoral tracks, Ahmed is joined by fellow trumpeter

Noel Langley

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Noel Langley. Italian trumpeter

Luca Calabrese

trumpet
b.1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Luca Calabrese plays on two other tracks. (And no, you are not hallucinating: the sleeve art on Epik Didaktik Pastoral, La Saboteuse and Polyhymnia was all created by British artist Sophie Bass).

The ten tracks on Epik Didaktik Pastoral, which is effectively a suite, could be characterised as either cohesive or samey, depending on the listener. Either way the music is pretty relentless, just like B?rtsch's or

Steve Reich

composer / conductor
b.1936

" data-original-title="" title="">Steve Reich's can be relentless. But that is the point, or least part of the point. There are occasional flashes of tonal variety—the trumpet on "Dekorum ll Medel" sounds briefly Arabian (though it is played by Calabrese not Ahmed), and the MIDI keys on a couple of tracks suggest

Joe Zawinul

keyboards
1932 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Zawinul in

Weather Report

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Weather Report circa Mysterious Traveller (Columbia, 1974). Not so pastoral, but certainly epik.

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Track Listing

Vagen Som Landet; Utan Vilja; Dekorum l Hog; Badboll; Badboll Gles; Dekorum ll Medel; 100 Takter Med Piano; Blacklocka Angsklocka; Dekorum lll Lag; Omstart; Svedjebruk.

Personnel

Samuel H?llkvist

guitar

Dick Lovgren

bass, electric

Knut Finsrud

drums

Additional Instrumentation

Samuel H?llkvist: guitars, MIDI programming; Dick L?vgren: bass (1, 3, 5-8, 10); Anne Marte Eggen: bass (2, 4, 9); Knut Finsrud: drums; Yazz Ahmed: trumpet (1, 3); Noel Langley: additional trumpet (1, 3); Luca Calabrese: trumpet (2, 6); Katrine Amsler, sound design, programming (1, 7, 8, 10.)

Album information

Title: Epik Didaktik Pastoral | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: BoogiePost Recordings

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