(Contemporary Jazz/Post Bop) Helge Lien Trio - Discography - 2001-2022, MP3, 320 kbps

If music is a language, then maybe, vice versa, words can be used to imitate specific sounds? This fascinating phenomenon of onomatopoeia is the point of departure for the Helge Lien Trio's ninth album 'Guzuguzu'.
Each track is based on a different onomatopoetic Japanese term and the rich field of associations it opens up: What does a smile sound like? "Nikoniko". Spinning around in circles? "Kurukuru"! Even the album title - Guzuguzu - falls into the same category, describing what it sounds like to "move slowly". Intriguingly, as Lien was writing the pieces, he discovered hidden connections between them, which added up to a new vocabulary of sound. It has turned the trio's latest effort into their most ambitious and thrilling work to date.
"We spend close to an entire year preparing the recording of Guzuguzu. When we met in Rainbow studio, the album was more or less complete, not to say "garari", explains Lien. "This allowed for us to record the album in one single take. Listening to how it came out, it strikes me how close it resembles a live experience."

Everything and Everything at Once: The sessions to the new Helge Lien Trio album were not supposed to be special. And yet, they could never be business as usual. After the departure of founding member Frode Berg, the group were "at a crossroads," says Lien, and in need of a fresh start. They found it by leaving their comfort zone: For the first time in 15 years, they did not record at the Rainbow studio in Oslo. The change of location turned out to be productive. In the end, the musicians had two full records' worth of material – and none of it fit the glove of a conventional trio recording.
The sheer abundance of approaches and concepts makes 10 feel like a factory of ideas, an expansive world for letting go and losing yourself in, like a clockwork ticking at the pulse of passion. It presents a panopticum of this unique formation's versatility, including onomatopoetic piano paintings and hypnotic grooves, experimental abstractions and runic jazz. Lien is known for being capable of everything – this time, he just did everything all at once. It was obviously critical how new bassist Mats Eilert would fit in. All doubts, however, are quickly dispersed on opener "Be Patient". Appearing behind Lien's crystaline piano cascades, Eilert turns his instrument into a poetic device, imbuing the music with a sense of magic and mystery. The other members, too, are awarded their spot in the limelight. In the solo pieces, their individual voices sound more recognisable than ever, while forging an even tighter unit in the band settings.. Some have referred to the trio's style as 'new chamber music' – it is not hard to understand, why.
Lien himself especially has grown as a composer and performer. Some of the most striking passages are reminiscent of his ambitious solo record Kattenslager from 2012. On other occasions, he pushes the beat forward with impulsive staccatos, at times separating himself from the rhythm section, at timese closely aligning himself with it.
There's no easy way of explaining this album. Some of the pieces are autumnal and consoling. Others feel more forceful and disturbing. But they are all connected. Like twins in a dark room. Like all the different and sometimes contradicting ideas that haunt Helge Lien whenever he sits down behind the piano - and which all suddenly make perfect sense.

Revisited is a hybrid of studio and concert recordings from the acclaimed Norwegian pianist/composer Helge Lien and his trio.
Miraculously, however, you can't hear the hybrid nature of the source material. All tracks blend into a cohesive, 50-minute piece: There are no sounds from the audience and the studio takes feel as urgent as the live performances.
After the departure of Frode Berg (after 'Guzuguzu') and Per Oddvar Johansen (after '10'), Helge Lien had to re-think and re-assemble his trio. All the while, he continued to record and (virtually) perform you could call it improvisation squared.
The courage has paid off: The new formation - Johannes Eick joining on bass alongside the returning Knut Aalefjaer on drums - arrived at interpretations which felt like a look back and a fresh departure all at once: This is not a revolution, it's passion under the microscope.
"Lien has always been an accomplished pianist, but here he suggests he can be something more, a name that can be mentioned alongside the likes of Jan Johannsen, Bengt Hallberg, Bobo Stenson and Esbjorn Svensson in the pantheon of important Nordic pianists." (Jazzwise)