(Avant-Garde / Abstract / Provocative / Not easy listening) Sidsel Endresen - One - 2006, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Sidsel Endresen has been at the forefront of the Norwegian music-scene for more than two decades. Her work has spanned genres from «fusion» and «jazz-rock» in the -80’s - to free improvisation and «new music» in the -90’s and the new millennium.
Through her two solo-records on ECM Records («So I Write» and «Exile»), three duo-recordings with Bugge Wesseltoft, as well as other releases on the Jazzland label («Merriwinkle»,»Undertow» a.o.) - she has received wide international recognition and critical acclaim.
In international media she has been labelled «the Grand Dame of Nordic, poetic chamber-jazz» and «Europe’s most innovative jazz singer» - yet she does not consider herself a «jazz»-singer per se. She is influenced by many sources, including the ethnic and contemporary vocal expressions.
Sidsel Endresen has always moved in new directions - constantly renewing her music and her approach - and challenging the traditional role and function of the singer. She is today considered a major influence on a new generation of singers, both at home and abroad.
She has worked extensively with the voice as solo-instrument - and has developed her own, distinctive improvisational style - and her own abstract, phonetic «language» based on her exploration of the pure sound-aspects of the human voice.
Her solo-concerts are intimate, minimalistic - with complete focus on the voice - and with no use of electronic devises or effects. She occasionally accompanies herself on a few simple instruments (a small kalimba, and old mini tape-recorder, a glass.)
The repertoire for her solo-concerts is a mixture of improvisations and her own, pre-organised material. ~ Sofa Release Notes

While those around her were busy exploring the nexus of technology and conventional instrumentation at the 2006 Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, Norway, Sidsel Endresen was demonstrating just how much could be done with one unaltered human voice. One documents the advances she's made in stretching the potential of voice and articulation. It's a record that eschews, for the most part, conventions like melody, pulse and lyric. Still, despite its improvised nature, this brief 32-minute set is not without form or clear intention.
Endresen has been on the radar since her early days with ECM and albums including '94's Exile. But in recent years she's been working closely Nu Jazzers including keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft, trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær and multi-instrumentalist/producer Helge Sten (who mixed, edited and mastered One).
Undertow (Jazzland, 2000) was a compelling but still song-based album that demonstrated her appealing and wide-ranged voice in a more conventional yet distinctly personal setting. Here she challenges the listener with a series of ten miniatures that, at times, defy the certain knowledge that all sounds made are with a single voice, recorded dryly and with no additional processing.
Despite its most challenging nature, One not only has form within its individual tracks, but an overriding arc as well. On "1" Endresen emulates the sound of wind with embedded changes in pitch, while "2" is a mix of stuttered, staccato percussive clicks and ticks. "3" explores aborted and incomprehensible words interspersed with odd, scratching sounds, while "4" has a complex rhythm and the beginnings of restricted pitch.
Elsewhere Endresen naturally creates a voice in reverse, the buzzing of bees, percolating bubbles and rapid-fire guttural noises that would seem impossible were it not for the evidence before one's ears. Endresen covers a broad dynamic range, building from near silence to its greatest peak on "8," the closest to verbal articulation on the record.
One may not be a disc that sees regular rotation on many people's players. Still, it's a provocative exploration of the limitless potential of the human voice, and a unique project that could only come from the unencumbered voice of Sidsel Endresen. ~ John Kelman, AAJ
One is the most abstract yet original release by Norwegian vocalist Sidsel Endresen. Known for her ECM releases (So I Write, 1990, and Exile, 1994) and her collaborations with fellow countrymen (keyboard player Bugge Wesseltoft, saxophonist Trygve Seim and percusionist Terje Isungset), Endresen is a music educator who has influenced many Norwegian vocalists in her country. Still, she's an innovative musician who keep searching for new avenues to express her art.
One is a series of ten short, unnamed, naked and intimate vocal improvisations which challenge the concept of vocal expression and explore odd ways of using it. Endresen took this route at many solo concerts and began documenting the experiences on her last recording, Merriwinkle (Jazzland, 2005), which also focused on abstract vocal sounds and phonemes, but she was accompanied there by keyboard player Christian Wallumrød. In a recent interview, Endresen said that the primary concern of One is "with different fields of energy, and especially elements of movement, pulse and propulsion."
In all these improvisations Endresen attempts to intuitively connect a stream of musical "cells" with some "alien" musical happening, which she can not contain with any familiar formula or musical structure, or a even an ordinary concept of time. She begins One with long breaths and quiet humming, but from "2" onward she moves to a series of propulsive, percussive short phonemes that indeed outline an "alien" language. "5" is surprising in its suggestive tenderness, "7" for its simple child-like playfulness. The rich and expressive sonics of "8" sound like a "raging Uzbek woman," to quote Endresen's words. On "9" the vocals hover around like a soft wind that turns into what may sound like a cry of yearning. The concluding track is a quick stream of percussive, short phonemes that attest to the true originality of this captivating musical journey.
One is certainly not an easy listening experience, but it's quite a rewarding and haunting one. ~ Eyal Hareuveni, AAJ

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 25. October 2008, 19:51
Sidsel Endresen / One
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