Klaus Ellerhusen Holm – clarinet and alto sax
Hernâni Faustino – double bass
Nuno Morão – drums percussion

«…hadde Jimmy Giuffre levd i dag, har jeg en mistanke om at det er i dette musikalske landskapet han hadde befunnet seg.» -Salt Peanuts, Jan Granlie

RELEASES

Reviews

Album review:
Hamar Trio – “Yesterday Is Here”

AVANT SCENA
December 24, 2018

“Yesterday Is Here” is a new release of “Clean Feed Records”. Album was recorded by “Hamar Trio”. It’s three great jazz masters – Klaus Ellerhusen Holm (clarinet, alto saxophone), Hernâni Faustino (double bass) and Nuno Morão (drums, percussion). “Hamar Trio” connects the innovative and modern tendencies of Norwegian and Portugal avant-garde jazz scene. Three musicians are the innovators of avant-garde jazz – they are searching for experimental ways of playing, produce weird and outrageous timbres and colorful expressions. The music is modern, bright, evocative and tremendous. The traditions, famous jazz themes, the roots of 1960’s and 1970’s avant-garde jazz are connected with music of famous jazz stars and original compositions by “Hamar Trio”. The improvisations are spontaneous and live – it’s changing all the time, obtains new colors, themes and sounds. Musicians like to experiment in all cases of musical language – that’s how they create interesting and bright sound.

“Yesterday Is Here” is energetic, wild and dynamic set of compositions. Album is based on free jazz and various styles of it. Free improvisations, fascinating musical experiments, searches of unusual musical decisions and weird timbres, the innovations in instrumentation’s section – that’s the main base of this album. The music is bright, evocative, vivid and warm. Compositions have bright and difficult musical language. Colorful, multi-layed and abstract musical pattern is consisted from dozens of different elements. The original compositions by trio musicians are connected with the excerpts or citations from the famous themes of Derek Bailey or other great jazz stars. The excerpts from the most famous themes are variated, modified and changed – the paraphrases of these themes are integrated in main musical pattern. That brought original, colorful and expressive sound to the album. Musicians are the masters of their art. They are improvising freely, wild and charming – improvisations are filled with bright. viragious, rolling and passionate bursts of energy. Millions of rhythms and rhythmic series, repetitive beats, sharp and colorful harmony, unusual timbres, experimental ways of playing, bordering dynamics, silmunateous connections of moods and tempos – all these elements are used very frequently in this album. The musicians improvising in the spot – just small part of their music is arranged before the concert. That creates an impression of emotional, bright, expressive, unpredictable and colorful sound. Musicians get through different moods and playing manners without any force – vivacious passages gently fit with slow and subtle excerpts, luminous and roaring blow outs or sweet, light and romantic pieces. After harsh and aggressive repetitive rhythmic or harmonic series there comes soft, relaxing and dreamy mood. All these changes are made in natural and warm manner, without forces or hard attacks. The musicians manage to create dozens of different pieces and episodes. Each of them is different from the others, but musicians get them all together in one place. The music is composed and constructed by principe of colliage, when contrasting episodes are played at the same time and are joined in one musical pattern. Roaring and sparkling blow outs, expressive solos, vibrant and tremendous sparkls of energy, passionate and light glissando, enchanting passages contain the main part of clarinet and saxophone improvisations. Klaus Ellerhusen Holm fuses together his own ideas, new point of view and the newest innovations of Norwegian avant-garde jazz scene. Scandinavian minimalism, ascetism, modernism and post-minimalism are fused with expressive, moving and scandalous improvisations. Hernâni Faustino’s double bass contain the main part of background, harmonic and rhythmic pattern. It beautifies the melodic line, who is leaded by reeds. Exotic rhythms, ethnic elements of traditional Portugal music, excerpts from the famous avant-garde jazz themes, charming and vibrant solos, sparkling and scandalous culminations or subtle, slow and abstract pieces are gently joined together in one place. Nuno Morão is a leader of drums section. He manages to create vibrant, tremendous, modern and dynamic rhythmic section. It’s independent from the other sections and has an attaching, bright, energetic and sparkling sound. Sharp and aggressive modern jazz rhythms, bright drum rolls, loud culminations, terrific and turbulent scandals, sweet and soft pieces or free, wild and tremendous improvisations – everything has its own place in his improvisations. The drums section is gorgeously illustrated by colorful percussion. The music of this album joins together Portugal, Norwegian, European and American avant-garde jazz and its traditions, the newest innovations and three original, great and impressive jazz masters. Together they create interesting, evocative and passionate sound.

Album review:
Hamar Trio – “Yesterday Is Here”

SALT PEANUTS, Jan Granlie
January 1st, 2019

Så er vi over i et nytt år, og vi starter like godt opp med en plate med en trio som har fått navn etter min fødeby. Hamar Trio består av den norske klarinettisten og saksofonisten Klaus Ellerhusen Holm, bassisten Hernãni Faustino og trommeslageren og perkusjonisten Nuno Morão, innspilt i Salão Brazil i Coimbra i november 2016.

Ellerhusen Holm kjenner mange fra flere konstellasjoner, blant annet med trioen Honest John, Ballrogg og med Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit. Han er en nesten unik tekniker på instrumentet, og leverer alltid originale vrier i sitt spill både på klarinett og saksofon.

Faustino startet sin karriere4 som bassist i rockeband, men har etter hvert glidd over i jazzen, og er i dag en av de sterkeste bass-stemmene innenfor den Portugisiske jazzen, blant annet i samarbeid med saksofonisten Rodrigo Amado, mens Nuno Morão, også fra Portugal, har spilt og spiller med en rekke band i hjemlandet innenfor den friere delen av jazzen.

Sammen har de laget en ettertenksom plate i det frie landskapet. Vi får fire spor, hvor alt er «kommet på» der og da. En kunst det bare er å beundre at noen får til å fungere. Her «snakker» de sammen på dannet vis, noe annet hadde vel egentlig forundret meg så lenge Ellerhusen Holm deltar i samtalen. De lar alle de tre stemmene slippe til, og vi unngår de opphetede og heftige diskusjonene hvor alle skal snakke i munnen på hverandre. Og der de gjør det, er det med respekt for hverandre og man lar alle snakke ut.

Musikken er fabulerende og innimellom litt svevende, med Ellerhusen Holm som «møteleder» og den som i flere av sporene kommer med ideene og hvilken retning «samtalen» skal ta. Og om han spiller klarinett eller altsaksofon, oppfører han seg som en dannet mann. Han leder an, men lar hele tiden Faistino og Morão få komme med sine oppfatninger.

«Yesterday is Here» er derfor blitt nærmest «et mønsterbruk» innenfor fritt improvisert musikk, hvor det de framfører nesten kan regnes inn under kammerjazzen, og hadde Jimmy Giuffre levd i dag, har jeg en mistanke om at det er i dette musikalske landskapet han hadde befunnet seg.

En plate det er deilig å åpne det nye året med, og et godt alternativ til nyttårskonserten fra Wien og hopprennet fra Garmish Partenkirchen.

Album review:
Hamar Trio – “Yesterday Is Here”

Music and More
december 30, 2018

The Hamar Trio consists of Klaus Ellerhusen Holm on clarinet and alto saxophone, Hernani Faustino on bass and Nuno Morao on drums and percussion. The music was recorded in November 2016 in Portugal and begins with "Yellow Plum," which opens the album with spare reed sounds, and barely heard percussion using feathering brushes, clarinet and long tones of bowed bass. They create an uncomfortable, unsettling sound collage, one that grows louder, coalescing into a collective improvisation as clarinet and bowed bass undulate in constant motion, leading into a quiet middle of abstract improvisation. It's a complex, tight act of spontaneous creation, growing gradually louder with sweeping clarinet and their loud/soft, light/dark dynamic setting the pace for the album. A deep and raw toned alto saxophone leads "Sjoorm" with taut bass in music that flexes its muscles and circulates well rhythmically, rough hewn and powerful, moving to a robust free improvisation, gaining momentum and spinning with centripetal force, open and unencumbered and playing with great enthusiasm. Gales of saxophone alternating with long alarming tones of sound and earthy plucked bass are met with incisive drumming carry them to the outer edge of improvisation and the conclusion of the performance. "Sour Apple" also uses long tones of saxophone rolling out over crisply played cymbals and rumbling drums invoking a mysterious feeling as the bass bounds along. The saxophone breaks out a little more clearly, playing an unaccompanied section, sounding naked and unadorned, and emotionally free, before the bass and drums crash back in driving the music faster and louder into an exciting free improvisation with covers an impressive length of time in a performance that is filled with great enthusiasm and eagerness, gradually downshifting in intensity, coalescing around a tight drum pattern for the closing. Unexpected sounds varying in pitch and strength give "Yesterday is Here" it's ailen soundscape, sounding unsettled, urgent and stressed. The percussive brushes paint shifting and shuffling layers while the saxophone emits a piercing, arcing sound that is almost painful to hear. They have become sound scientists, looking to see how far they can manipulate their instruments, seeking inner and outer space, juxtaposing silence with harrowing vibrations. They create strange and fascinating results, one gets the feeling that Sun Ra would be proud. Give them credit: their music is powerful and bracing stuff.