MEADOW (John Taylor, Tore Brunborg and Thomas Stronen) sign to Edition
Edition Records are proud to announce the signing of MEADOW featuring British pianist John Taylor, Norwegian saxophonist Tore Brunborg and Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen. Featuring three of Europe’s finest and most sensitive players, each one with countless recordings under their belt, Blissful Ignorance was recorded at the prestigious Rainbow Studios in Oslo, and will be released in February 2011 to coincide with an extensive European tour.
Photo: C.F. Wesenberg
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ALBUM: BLISSFUL IGNORANCE
Featuring three of Europe’s finest and most sensitive players, each one with countless recordings under their belt, Blissful Ignorance is a record that comes in many colours. By turns pastoral, elegiac, witty, romantic and forthright, it looks set to become one of 2011’s most accomplished recordings.
With our own John Taylor on piano one would hardly expect less. Just listen to his voicings and playful melody lines on the coyly unknowing title track, the well-chosen angularity of his work on Amentia and the thoughtful eloquence of his playing on the sombre Kirstis Tårer. Norwegian saxophonist Tore Brunborg composed seven of these nine tunes. He writes as he plays – with an absence of sentimentality and instead a mature restraint. But it never far from the surface either, lingering over a bitter-sweet memory on Tunn Is, in passionate reflection on Meadow and smiling through tears and gritted teeth on Will. There’s a devil-may-care, bruised machismo – I can put it no other way – about Brunborg that is immediately affecting.
That leaves master percussionist Thomas Strǿnen. How many times has he stunned British audiences with Food, the group he co-leads with Iain Ballamy. If the names Christensen and Motian mean anything to you, one listen will tell you why Strǿnen is their heir apparent. His introduction to Tunn Is is filled with dramatic foreboding, while his duet with Taylor on Amentia and playing on Taylor’s multi-hued Ritual provides a textbook of contemporary percussion.
If the group’s name suggests some kind of pastoral idyll, then so be it. But there’s no sentimentality or fey romanticism about Meadow or Blissful Ignorance. This music has the wisdom, honesty and vigour that is borne only of experience. Blissful Ignorance has its own sense of place, time and worth, able to seek and to soar but with the maturity to know what really matters. Blissful Ignorance – these guys have it sussed.
READ MORE:
www.editionrecords.com/artists/meadow
www.johntaylorjazz.com
www.torebrunborg.com
www.thomasstronen.com
