https://cvecezla-wordpress-com.translate.goog/2026/06/21/jazz-nedeljom-gorm-askjaer-trio-microverse-i-ravee-treesaksesakoon-miles-butler-thats-when-homies-are-chillin-i-tellef-ogrim-acoustic-debris/?utm_source=chatgpt.com&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=no&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Mehmet Krlic' text in English (Google translate):
I have written about Tellef Øgrim many times before, so there is no need to go into any detailed biographical explanations now. This is a man with over fifty years of experience working in the domain of improvised and avant-garde music, who has, of course, done his shifts in both rock and jazz bands, but in recent decades has mainly focused on freely improvised music, which he makes alone or in collaborations with often equally experienced, veteran free jazzers and improvisers. With this much mileage comes a total perspective on music where every element of it: tonality, harmony, texture, dynamics, gesturality is seen as equally important and equally interesting, and, as I said last time: "he still seems to approach the guitar every day with the excitement of a thirteen-year-old who has just been enrolled in music school."
Acoustic Debris is an ideal way to get acquainted with his work because, unlike the last few of Øgrim's works that I have presented, this is a conceptually richer environment and is not as minimal and abstract as it was the last few times. The entire album was recorded at home on an acoustic guitar Martin D-25 K, which I already mentioned on the occasion of a release from this fall, which will soon itself complete half a century of experience and dedicated work. These are free, completely "conceptually" emptied improvisations in which the guitarist plays only what seems natural to him at that moment and follows the momentary impulse in moving from tonal, harmonic phrases that have recognizable roots in jazz and other popular music, to gestural, atonal - Øgrim says "almost aggressive" - outbursts.
The music here is not only inspired but compulsively, almost stressfully forced to arise as a response to the constant tension that Øgrim feels due to the current geopolitical and ecological situation. And which may be “very Scandinavian”, but in a very deeply personal way. The author says very directly: “I wonder if Homo sapiens and planet Earth are a good idea or not.”, contemplating on pollution and “despots in the East and the West” and recognizing that his abstract music cannot directly change this, but that it is the only thing he can do.
[](https://i.imgur.com/Uoq6FjI.jpeg)
Music is magic, in a different way than lyrics, because when you listen to Acoustic Debris you realize that this is not a record of resigned pessimism and a depressive descent into a spiral of despair and helplessness. On the contrary: to the world that is being destroyed before our eyes, Øgrim contrasts pure beauty, music that is personal, but in a deeply honest, stripped-down way. It is both naive and vulnerable and emotional and at the same time emphatically optimistic, aware that it is not the same when something trivial and worthless disappears and when something honest and noble and beautiful disappears. Yes, in the end all that remains is trash, but some of that trash has a magnificent history. It is as simple as that:
[https://tellefogrim.bandcamp.com/album/acoustic-debris](https://tellefogrim.bandcamp.com/album/acoustic-debris)
No comments:
Post a Comment