Mysterier by Andreas Røysum Ensemble

Andreas Røysum Ensemble is out with their third album. The band tours Europe with youthful energy interspersed with wisdom. "Mysterier" (“Mysteries”) is a frisky and timeless jazz record from 12 passionate soloists in hi-fi resolution from the legendary studio Athletic Sound.

The band's previous record was praised in The Wire: "There's an endearing raggedness to the performances, with overlapping, bobbing and weaving themes that nod to both Ayler's Swedish folk-informed, string-driven pieces and Don Cherry's mid-1960s extended suites.”

And after a concert at the Oslo Jazz Festival in 2023, Norwegian Jazznytt editor Audun Vinger wrote: "Andreas Røysum Ensemble with vocalists is concert-Norway's biggest happy pill." And added a few words about Røysum himself: "For being so eccentric, he has great potential to become a folk hero, the public loves his physique and his hellish gentleness, as if with a joy mixed with horror."

Andreas Røysum's aim is clearly not to be timid or afraid, but rather to take what comes. And Andreas Røysum Ensemble is Andreas Røysum Ensemble. As every language-obsessed person knows, "ensemble" is French for "together". All the given members of the band are together. But it is true that the line-up undergoes small changes, and now the band is expanded with the vocalist Sofie Tollefsbøl who contributes with compassionate vocals on Røysum's compositions as well as the two traditional songs "Hares on the Mountain" and "Barbara Allen".

The last release by Røysum Ensemble was the double album "Fredsfanatisme” (“Peace fanaticism”). After the terrible intensification of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent diplomatic ice front between "the West" and "the rest", peace has now become almost a taboo word, the peace movement is gagged, ironically in the fight for freedom of expression and liberalism. How on earth are we supposed to react to this? It seems that the closest solution is to re-indulge in the mysteries surrounding the creative forces that surround us.

Because, as with everything else, activism is also a very broad concept. Let's make one thing clear first and foremost: we must dissolve the binary perceptions of how the world is connected. Because both in word and deed, i.e., in the debates and through political activity, the strong forces persist under the pretext of a hyper-rational and binary narrative about how the world consists of the good and the bad. But how many people would actually have believed this if they had been allowed to stare the Mysteries in the eye, if only for a few minutes?

Focusing positively on how music can help open people's senses to the mysterious is essential peace work. Therefore, mysticism becomes the next main focus in the work of contributing to concrete changes in the vibrational field we live in. Because we know that it is never a problem to transcend binarity.

Our opinion is that art should by no means entertain us (entertain: late 15c., to keep up, maintain, to keep (someone) in a certain frame of mind), but inspire us to open the doors of perception, cultivate the humane, smash the binary world lie. No matter how many skyscrapers that are erected and money that is speculated on the suffering of others, to fill the bank accounts of arms dealers and bankers, art will remain as the best thing humans was able to produce during its few hundred thousand years of existence.

For those who perceive the album as a potpourri, we can tell you that this is One music, it is our music here and now. All our concerts are different, so this album will be a slight opening towards an endlessly expanding musical universe.

DETAILS
Compositions by Andreas Røysum, except "Hares on the Mountain" & "Barbara Allen" (trad.)

Recorded 5-7. September 2022 by Dag Erik Johansen in Athletic Sound, Halden
Mixed by Dag Erik Johansen in Athletic Sound, Halden
Mastered in Øra Studio, Trondheim by Karl Klaseie

Cover art by Daniel West
Graphic design by Egil Kalman

Personnel: Sofie Tollefsbøl, vocals; Henriette Eilertsen, flute; Signe Emmeluth, alto saxophone, flute; Marthe Lea, tenor saxophone; Andreas Røysum, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, flute; Erik Kimestad Pedersen, trumpet; Øyvind Brække, trombone, poetry; Hans P. Kjorstad, fiddle; Joel Ring, cello; John Andrew Wilhite, double bass; Christian Meaas Svendsen, double bass, electric bass; Andreas Wildhagen, drums, percussion, tubular bells; Ivar Myrset Asheim, drums, percussion, vibraphone

MOT23LP + MOT23CD, Motvind Records 2023

A norwegian ensemble lead by clarinetist Andreas Røysum; a very lucky man being able to write for and play with his favorite musicians.