Description
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Following their debut Elastic Bricks (Umlaut Records, 2022) which set out to explore possible discoveries within a standard contemporary song format, the trio Oùat now releases a double LP of music by Swedish pianist Per Henrik Wallin. The Strange Adventures of Jesper Klint brings back and revitalises the ideas and sounds of Wallin’s legendary trio recordings from the mid-1980s, released under the album name Coyote (Dragon 320).
Per Henrik Wallin (1946-2005) was a Swedish pianist, jazz musician and composer actively questioning his surroundings with a composite and free form of music making – notably in trio. At his childhood home in Karlsborg he got inspired by the instantaneous bursts of early jazz greats such as Art Tatum and Fats Waller. Quite soon he was playing swing dance music in cafés (with Sven-Åke Johansson among others) while pursuing philosophical studies. Inspired by literature, the idea of a personal expression, and the time and timing of bebop and free jazz, his own groups started getting recognition for their renewable sound and headstrong energy from the 70s and on. The definite, hence risky, touch of the clavier and the deep understanding of jazz as well as classical repertoire heard through his music (not excluding humour) were like bulletin boards of inevitable and eternal ways of making music true to one’s own expression. As resistance to the pull of industrialised mass-music and stupefying cultural politics his music was in constant confrontation to the listeners and their environment. It asked, but who are you then?
Not many people outside Sweden know about Per Henrik Wallin (even though he was a frequent collaborator with SÅJ/FMP and had a record released by an American label). The trio Oùat performs Per Henrik Wallin’s music because of its capacity of triggering the vital complexity of making jazz in general and hoping the presentation of it will raise the interest in discovering and acknowledging this more or less forgotten master.
“Oùat not only manages to treat the original music with both curiosity and accuracy but also pushes the music forward and makes the compositions their own. This band is also a treat to watch live where their interplay and sheer musicality is obvious and contagious.” Per Henrik Wallin’s family, from the liner notes.
