Guzuguzu Helge Lien Trio

• 1Gorogoro (thundering)04:35
• 2Guzuguzu (moving slowly)04:41
• 3Nikoniko (smiling)03:56
• 4Garari (completely)08:13
• 5Jasmine04:55
• 6Chokichoki (cutting)06:26
• 7Kurukuru (spinning around)03:14
• 8Shitoshito (raining quietly)06:07
• Total Runtime42:07

Info for Guzuguzu

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 9th album Guzuguzu: Each track is based on a different onomatopoetic Japanese term and the rich field of associations it opens up. The conceptual angle may seem to point at a rather cerebral recording process. In fact, the exact opposite is true: We were able to record the album in a single take, Lien recounts, We spent close to an entire year preparing the recording of Guzuguzu, so when we met in Rainbow studio for the actual sessions, the album was more or less complete, not to say 'garari'. Listening to how it came out, it strikes me how closely it resembles a live experience. With just a single exception, all tracks emerge from the same melodic theme, constantly oscillating between improvisation and composition and combining the spirit of jazz with symphonic development. When the last notes have subsided, the listener is led into a sublime state beyond music and words, best described by Wittgenstein's famous aphorism: Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Helge Lien, piano
Frode Berg, bass
Per Oddvar Johansen, drums

A little nation with a big jazz tradition is the land of fjords and trolls. Fascinating new artists and acts sporting a huge zest for playing and an irrepressible urge for experimentation keep pushing out of Norway to conquer the rest of the jazz world. The Helge Lien Trio, who have already won a large circle of fans in Scandinavia and Japan with their five albums and inspiring live concerts, are especially significant. They maintain the balance between jazz traditions and the avantgardist art of improvisation like hardly any other classic piano trio, par excellence.

Helge Lien, who besides his own trio project performs with other Norwegian acts like Silje Nergaard, has developed his very own unmistakeable style of trio playing with band colleagues Frode Berg (bass) and Knut Aalefjær (drums & percussion). With instinctive sureness, the musicians develop a „chamber music“ jazz that stands out through its harmonically complex tone colors. Building on Bill Evans’ lyrical power and the exhilaratingly melancholic playing of Esbjörn Svensson, Lien, in constant dialogue with Berg & Aalefjær, creates distinct moods on 'Hello Troll' – moods that he presents with ease.

Doubtlessly pianist Helge Lien, who is very skilled at playing to the gallery with his modal piano art, is one of the most exciting young talents in Scandinavia. After the honorable Dagbladet from Norway already described the forerunner CD 'To The Little Radio' as „the best Norwegian Piano Trio Album in a long time', we can be looking out for a similar reaction to their new longplayer. Playing their way into the hearts of a steadily growing circle of listeners with classic-impressionistic patterns and rhythmical-melodic jazz, this trio’s resourcefulness seems to truly know no bounds.

Booklet for Guzuguzu