The Viking in the Wilderness - reviews and news

(44:42; April Records) Track list: 1. Birds 4:20 2. Posterity 5:39 3. Behind the Walls 3:46 4. Clouds 6:00 5. Anthem 2:40 6. Tapestry of Life 3:52 7. Like a Sparrow 3:06 8. Two Track 5:33 9. Twain Walking 5:40 10. Ripples 4:06 Line-up: Lis Wessberg - trombone Steen Rasmussen - Fender Rhodes, Moog, synthesizers, piano Lennart Ginman - bass, electronics Jeppe Gram - drums with: Karmen Roivassepp - vocals Danish artist Lis Wessberg is a well established and well known musician both in her home land as well as in jazz circles internationally, although her focus appears to have been to be a musician rather than a creator for most of her career. For the past few years she has also expanded her repertoire into becoming a proper solo artist, with two solo albums to her name so far. "Twain Walking" is the most recent of these, and was released through the label April Records in the spring of 2024. I was delighted with the music I encountered on Wessberg's first solo album when tha...

(47:56; M&O Music) Track list: 1. And Then There Was Silence 2:04 2. No Tomorrow 5:37 3. Brief Is the Light 6:04 4. As Life Fades 5:03 5. Stolen Seasons 4:04 6. Her Wounded Soul 5:38 7. A Voice in the Dark 5:14 8. The Neverending Journey 5:54 9. Dreaming of Oblivion 5:48 10. And I Return to Nothingness 2:30 Line-up: Mathieu Bonfardin - drums Thibault Rousseau - bass Jonathan Prudhomme - guitars Frederic Paume - guitars Anne Soazig Couëdel - vocals French band Near Death Experience is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Mathieu Bonfardin, and from 2021 and onwards he has developed material for this venture. The end result of this creative process is the album "Brief Is the Light" which was released through French label M&O Music in the spring of 2024. While the material for this album has been created by one person, the band leader has assembled a proper band to record the material for this album and obviously also in order to be able to be a proper live ban...

(40:57; Prophone) Track list: 1. Turning Point 6:31 2. Strive 5:27 3. The Space Between 4:03 4. No Man's Land 5:59 5. Moving On 7:10 6. The Old House 3:44 7. No Worries 4:25 8. Fragments 3:38 Line-up: Adam Forkelid - piano Carl Mörner Ringström - guitars Niklas Fernqvist - bass Daniel Fredriksson - drums Swedish artist Adam Forkelid has been an active recording artist for two decades or thereabouts, with a number of band projects and cooperations under his belt in addition to nurturing a career as a solo artist since he released his debut album "Cirkel" back in 2005. This spring he released his new solo album "Turning Point" through Swedish label Prophone and, if I have understood this correctly, distributed by the Naxos label. While I guess there is a specific subset of jazz that this album should be filed under, I'm not well versed enough in this part of the music universe to pinpoint this exactly. For my sake I'd describe this as mainly piano dominate...