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Andre Roligheten: Marbles

By Chris May
November 5, 2023
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Tenor saxophonist André Roligheten is best known outside his native Norway, and wider Scandinavia, as a member of drummer

Gard Nilssen

drums
b.1983

" data-original-title="" title="">Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity and as a composer/arranger in the berserker big band,

Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra. Nilssen returns the favour on Marbles, one of Roligheten's infrequent own-name releases.

The album has grown out of a band Roligheten put together in spring 2021 for the Trondheim Jazz Festival, which had commissioned a new piece from him. The band was called Radio and was a quartet comprising Roligheten, Nilssen, keyboardist

Ståle Storløkken

multi-instrumentalist

" data-original-title="" title="">St?le Storl?kken and bassist

Jon Rune Strøm

bass, acoustic
b.1985

" data-original-title="" title="">Jon Rune Str?m. The commissioned piece was titled "Transmission," and it was a suite which contained early versions of some of the material on Marbles.

Fast forward to spring 2022 and Roligheten and a revamped Radio were in the studio recording Marbles. Roligheten, Nilssen and Str?m were still in the lineup, but Storl?kken was gone, replaced—and here is the crucial bit—by

Johan Lindstrom

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Johan Lindstrom on pedal steel guitar and

Mattias Ståhl

vibraphone
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Mattias St?hl on vibraphone. Calling out to anyone who only has to hear a bar or two of high-oscillating vibraphone to get a flashback: does that sound trippy or what? It sure does, and then crank it up with Lindstr?m's pedal steel, which is less Jim Reeves than Wavy Gravy on a theremin.

The press release suggests the listener imagines that

Sonny Rollins

saxophone
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Rollins and

Egberto Gismonti

guitar
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Egberto Gismonti met on the beach at a yoga retreat in Hawaii and decided to make an album together. Roligheten himself writes that he feels the compositions are marbles adrift in a galaxy far, far away. Some listeners may feel like they are riding on a fairground merry-go-round with a head full of Owsley's finest, hearing windblown snatches of a weird-out palais band in the middle distance. Just go with the flow, whatever it is.

The album as a whole is a bit of a curate's egg. Opening track "Sonny River" is a generic Rollins calypso romp which sets everything up a treat. Booting tenor, mindfucking pedal steel/theremin. Later, another romp, "Twin Bliss," this time with an intermittently Arabic vibe and a straight-up electric guitar, returns to similar territory. But some of the other tracks sound a little tentative, like they are early drafts of not fully formed ideas. One's attention wanders. As it would, with all that acid.

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Track Listing

Sonny River; Ariel’s Song; Whale Waltz; Lagoon Mist; Pyramid Dance; Moon Shade; Twini Bliss; Live Sover.

Personnel

Andre Roligheten

saxophone

Johan Lindstrom

guitar

Mattias St?hl

vibraphone

Jon Rune Str?m

bass, acoustic

Gard Nilssen

drums

Additional Instrumentation

André Roligheten: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass saxophone, clarinet; Johan Lindstr?m: pedal steel guitar, electric guitar; Gard Nilssen: drums and percussion.

Album information

Title: Marbles | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Odin Records

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