Nils Petter Molvaer - Solid Ether
It's 2001 and I knew Nils Petter Molvaer's Solid Ether was going to spike to the top of my list when it was released in Europe last year; I just couldn't really justify putting it at the top of my list without it being relatively available for the hometown readership. I did that trick for Andrea Parker's Kiss My ARP and it took almost a year for that disc to find release in the States. I couldn't really get away with that sort of fortune-telling two years running. So, I waited. And I've waited. And I gave up hope of ever seeing Solid Ether over here and fully planned on snagging a copy while I took a wee trip to Paris at the end of February. Three weeks before I leave, Solid Ether shows up in the racks over here, and it is as every bit a masterpiece as I hoped it would be.
Picking up directly where Khmer left off, Solid Ether builds on Molvaer's quiet, breathy style of trumpet playing, creating large spaces that he fills with the heart-breaking sound of his harmonized instrument. It's very evident that this isn't just a retread of Khmer as the first shattering break-beat skitters past you and erupts into a full jungle explosion. "Dead Indeed" most certainly is not, as you are launched into space by the rhythm section and Molvaer's trumpet caresses you in flight like the spangled tail of a broad comet. "Vilderness 1" languidly arches itself around you as Molvaer and Eivind Aarset's guitar reach toward the sky like yearning sunflowers. Continuing the late night melancholy of "Katonita," Molvaer and singer Sidsel Endresen engage in a tiny torch number for voice and piano with "Merciful 1" (reprised in "Merciful 2" to close out the disc). "Ligotage" -- released as a single following Khmer -- is revamped here in a slightly remixed version, not as heavy on the low end, but still an exquisite arrangement of the shuffling rhythm section behind Molvaer's breathy trumpet. Molvaer's influence from Miles Davis' On the Corner and Big Fun era can be heard throughout, but "Ligotage" as well as "Trip" and "Solid Ether" demonstrate his awareness of those historical structures where the trumpet is simply the voice that sails above the grunting, straining, pulsing rhythm section.
Solid Ether is just an essential album, regardless of when your local CD distributors decide to finally carry it. It is a breathtaking amalgamation of electronics and jazz, bridging the last century and the next.
Nils Petter Molvaer
ECM Records [2001]
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