MMO-Ensemble
ANY DAY NOW
MMO-ensemble's second album.
release: JUnE 1. 2018.
Martin Myhre Olsen, a saxophonist whose talents have been an integral part of various acclaimed ensembles (including Chick Corea & Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Megalodon Collective, Wako, and the Norwegian Grammy Award winning band Hegge), brings forth a new vision of the large improvising ensemble.
Taking the Ellington Spirit into the 21 st century – an intention that Myhre Olsen declares as a starting point for the ensemble - is one thing, but not only do MMO-Ensemble achieve this, they elaborate on it, not only temporally, but spatially, not so much weaving a new web, but a perfect cocoon that envelops the listener. The music is both its own visible surface, and its own logos.
This, the third project for the ensemble, follows on from the Emily Dickinson inspired “Western Mystery” (2016-2017) and “Lonely Creatures” (2014-2016), a fairy-tale for octet. For “Any Day Now”, texts by James Baldwin, Emily Dickinson and e.e. cummings provide linguistic and thematic starting points and touchstones for the music, as well as becoming part of the collage as a whole (both spoken and sung). Recorded live in front of an appreciative audience, “Any Day Now” marks a key milestone in the ensemble’s development.With variegated textures supplied by the twelve musicians, listeners will find atmospheres built from extended playing techniques, suggested rhythmic pulses, moments of drama that fall like a whisper or rise like an industrial behemoth roaring to the sky. Equally, there are moments of big band groove, propelled forwards on urban rails like unstoppable engines. Whether acting as disparate agents or as a forceful unity, the musicians remain connected throughout, never one of them out of sight of the others.
Within the near-crystalline structures of the music, both composed and improvised, there is a reflection of the structures of the poetry, both in terms of the dramaturgy of the words themselves, and the poetical structures. Indeed, James Baldwin’s poem from which the album derives its name also supplies the titles of the individual tracks (while the poetry of cummings and Dickinson is thematically resonant with them):
A N Y D A Y N O W
Why don’t you take
me in your arms and
carry me out of this
lonely place?
The music of MMO-Ensemble runs the gauntlet between intellectual and emotional, abstract and evocative, imposing and intimate, frenetic and tranquil. These explorations carry a uniquely sensual experience that appeals both to the higher mind and to pure instinct.
MMO-Ensemble was formed by Martin Myhre Olsen as a project-based ensemble. In his own words, the band was formed “out of a need to express my most intimate musical visions.” His handpicked ensemble of talented musicians have grown with Myhre Olsen compositional ambition, each functioning with perfect taste in relation to the necessities and exciting possibilities for exploration contained within each composition and performance. “Any Day Now” sees the largest version of the ensemble to date, with twelve musicians in the line-up:
Musicians:
Martin Myhre Olsen -alto & soprano saxophone
André Roligheten - tenor & baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
Erik Kimestad Pedersen - trumpet
Siril Malmedal Hauge - vocals
Øyvind Brække - trombone
Ayumi Tanaka - piano
Karl Bjorå - guitar
Håkon Aase - violin
Adrian Løseth Waade - violin
Kaja Fjellberg Pettersen - cello
Christian Meaas Svendsen - double bass, voice
Simon Olderskog Albertsen - drums, vibraphone
“It’s a remarkable achievement on many levels”
“A modern orchestral work, conveyed by a vital and loyal collective”
“The music is open, loose, structured, melodic and free - it typical Myhre Olsen. Thats a solid quality stamp! ”
“Any Day Now is a significant entry in the annals of contemporary large ensemble jazz, and a joy to hear”
“‘Any Day Now’ offers a fascinating musical playground, stimulating for the restless intellect and comforting the sorrowful heart, evocative and mind-provoking, intimate but always powerful”
“Martin Myhre Olsen must be one of the most interesting composers these days in Norwegian jazz.”
“Myhre Olsen succeeds in creating an unusually colorful soundscape”
PRODUCTION // OF 134
Produced by Martin Myhre Olsen // MMO
Recorded at Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene (Oslo, NO) 23st of January by Daniel Wold
Mixed by Jo Ranheim in Øra Studio (Trondheim, NO)
Mastered by Karl Klaseie in Greener Mastering (Trondheim, NO)
Cover art by Mari Kanstad Johnsen
Cover design by Christian Meaas Svendsen