Improvisation Returns to Art Music
Contemporary art music and jazz evolved side-by-side during the 20th century, each following the other’s development at a distance. A shared feature is their openness to new impressions and ideas. Often, composers and improvisational musicians have allowed themselves to be inspired by similar cultural expressions, but due to praxis and tradition, their music has adopted different modes of expression. Some indirect cross-pollination has taken place between genres, but little direct collaboration. The measure of improvisation that was a natural feature of art music only some 200 years ago has slowly but surely been reduced in favour of more precise notation. The attempts made to approach improvisation in art music, with the aid of graphic scores and the like, have generally been explored by classically trained musicians with little focus on the innate individual capacity for creation represented by improvisation and composition. Improvisational music has evolved from its African American origins into a expression more like that of art music, the exception being that musicians create music within the framework of a group effort and seldom depart from a specific notation. Turbulens documents a fresh encounter between two progressive musical traditions.
”The best crossover CD of the year has emerged: Turbulens. Precise notes encounter imprecise movements in a wonderfully compelling blend of unrest, tempests and chaos.” Aftonbladet
