Viaduct Marius Neset

• 1 Viaduct (Part 1a) 02:56
• 2 Viaduct (Part 1b) 07:26
• 3 Viaduct (Part 1c) 04:11
• 4 Viaduct (Part 1d) 05:04
• 5 Viaduct (Part 1e) 05:54
• 6 Viaduct (Part 1f) 02:16
• 7 Viaduct (Part 2a) 11:28
• 8 Viaduct (Part 2b) 05:35
• 9 Viaduct (Part 2c) 06:57
• 10 Viaduct (Part 2d) 13:41
• Total Runtime 01:05:28

Info for Viaduct

Gripping orchestral score with jazz core: A dramatically varied and visionary cross genre journey.

The 34-year-old Bergen-born tenor/soprano saxophonist-composer Marius Neset presents his new recording Viaduct and makes his boldest, most restlessly diverse statement to date. On his fifth album for leading European label ACT, Neset organically integrates a wide-ranging, colourful kaleidoscope of influences with his compelling compositions/arrangements for a pair of extended suites. Originally commissioned for the opening concert of the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in 2018, Viaduct offered Neset a fantastic opportunity to reunite his regular top-notch Brit-Scandi jazz quintet with world-class 19-piece London Sinfonietta, having initially performed together for his 2016 ACT release Snowmelt.

Made up of members of celebrated UK and Scandinavian contemporary jazz groups including Phronesis, Django Bates’ Beloved and Cloudmakers, Neset’s quintet (featured also on ACT CDs Pinball, (2015) and Circle of Chimes (2017)) consists of the pianist Ivo Neame, vibraphonist Jim Hart, drummer Anton Eger and bassist Petter Eldh, the latter pair of which Neset met while studying at the Copenhagen Rhythmic Music Conservatory under the inspirational tutelage of Django Bates. “We are so connected after all these years of playing together, and the music is very much composed for them specifically,” he says.

Described by the Guardian’s John Fordham as, “one of the hottest European jazz talents of recent years,” Neset uniquely combines the killer punch virtuosity of a Michael Brecker with the ethereal folk-ish qualities of legendary compatriot Jan Garbarek. He went on to embark on projects that underlined his obvious flair in composing for large ensembles starting with Lion in 2014 with Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.

A year in the making, Neset describes Viaduct as existing, “somewhere between improvised and modern contemporary classical music.” Viaduct is split into two half-hour parts. The orchestral palette of the first part is restlessly idiomatic and cinematic in scope while the second shines the spotlight more on the brilliant interplay between Marius, his band mates and London Sinfonietta.

Viaduct part one explodes with a scintillating fireworks display of twentieth-century art music and spiky jazz rhythms: bursts of Stravinsky-like motor rhythms interlace with Leonard Bernstein-esque urban symphonic jazz faintly echoing West Side Story. Later passages exude the romantic aspects and calmness of Neset’s Nordic sensibilities filtered through his intuitive symphonic writing skillset. “The way the piece is shaped,” he says, “is it starts with these atonal lines played very aggressively on the strings and it continues for quite a long time before it finally resolves getting more and more harmonies into it. And that’s where I feel it gives the music meaning.”

Viaduct part 2 sees Neset and his quintet play a more central role. It opens with a high-spirited bluesy fanfare reminiscent of Gershwin before the quintet bolster the excitement levels, spurred by Eger’s characteristically mega-propulsive drums. Wondrous Mahler-like string passages counter acclaimed pianist Neame’s imaginatively enigmatic piano that draws from the haunting exoticness of Olivier Messiaen and Bartok. There’s never a dull moment as Neset draws on the inspiration of Joe Zawinul with Hart’s African-inspired vibes and his sax launching into free-funk overdrive for a truly volcanic grand finale.

“The reason it’s called Viaduct is that this is about a connection to different musical ideas,” says Neset. “For me music can give associations about how you go from one world to another and it’s all about the way things are connected, the transitions, and how you can make it into something meaningful.” The evidence is crystal clear in his thrillingly resourceful integration of ensemble jazz and symphonic writing on Viaduct.

Marius Neset, tenor & soprano saxophones
Ivo Neame, piano
Jim Hart, vibraphone, marimba & percussion
Petter Eldh, double bass
Anton Eger, drums & percussion
London Sinfonietta
Geoffrey Paterson, conductor

Recorded by Jon Bailey at AIR Studios, London, 19th and 20th December, 2018
Mixed by August Wanngren at Virkeligheden
Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering
Produced by Marius Neset

Marius Neset
was born in 1985, in Bergen, a sleepy Norwegian harbour town that’s home to the internationally renowned Nattjazz Festival (Neset won the Talent Award there in 2004). Besides his love of jazz in its widest sense, the saxophonist-composer also grew up listening to bands from the so-called ‘Bergen wave’ of post-rock such as Royksopp (and from there on to Radiohead) through to the great classical composer of his hometown Edvard Grieg as well as more contemporary art music. “I love being in the mountains, and silence is a music as well. Maybe it’s because I’m from Norway I feel this,” he says. It accounts for the huge diversity and fluidity of movement between different elements of so-called genres that’s been a key characteristic of Marius Neset’s music to date.

When only 5 years old, before taking up the sax, he took lessons on drums and this has had a significant impact on his approach to composition in particular. “I think the drums gave me a rhythmic base that was very important. I learnt very young to play in these odd meters so I think I have a very natural feel for it,” he says. Neset, in live performance, also has the uncanny ability of making one saxophone sound like two or three.

In 2003 Neset moved to Copenhagen to study at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory. The great English pianist and large ensemble arranger Django Bates was professor there at the time and became Neset’s mentor. The saxophonist went on to become the star turn in Bates’ student big band StoRMchaser recording a CD Spring is Here (Shall we Dance?) in 2008. Meanwhile Neset also released his debut Suite for the Seven Mountains that year on the Danish Calibrated label. Besides a string quartet, it featured the Swedish drummer Anton Eger, who alongside Neset was also a leading member of Scandi-fusion boy band JazzKamikaze. In 2010 Django Bates took him to London to play at a concert at Kings Place marking his 50th birthday. Neset also appeared as a guest in Django Bates’ long time ensemble Human Chain at the famous Ronnie Scott’s club. Recorded by BBC Jazz on 3 he wowed the audience with his contrast of lightening virtuosity and tender, ethereal lyricism. One of those blown away was Dave Stapleton head of the fast emerging UK independent jazz label Edition Records.

Edition signed Neset to the label in 2011. GoldenXplosion, featuring a quartet that included Django on keys and the Scandi-Brit trio Phronesis’ rhythm section of Jasper Hoiby and Eger, was released to glowing press reviews with The Guardian writer John Fordham accurately predicting Neset would be, “on his way to being one of the biggest new draws on the circuit”. By the time of his second CD on Edition Birds in 2012, Neset had started developing his penchant for larger ensemble music and a widescreen palette of instrumental sound.

Still only 29 years of age, Neset is successfully hitting the international stage, and being talked about as a big tenor in a lineage that extends from the post-bop Americans from Michael Brecker, Chris Potter through to fellow Norwegian Jan Garbarek. But there’s a lot more to one of Europe’s brightest young stars than that. “I’m very inspired by people like Frank Zappa, Django Bates, Pat Metheny and Wayne Shorter where the music and the playing is one,” he has said. Neset’s classy, cohesive composition and arranging skills have come into even sharper focus with a new album Lion released in 2014, his debut for the Munich-based ACT, one of Europe’s leading jazz labels, in a collaboration with the celebrated Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, whose former collaborations have boasted the likes of Chick Corea and Pat Metheny. It was originally a commission to compose for the 13-piece orchestra (in a lineup that includes tuba player Daniel Herskedal, a fellow student at RMC who together released an impressive duo album Neck of the Woods in 2012.) for a concert at the 2012 Molde Jazz Festival. “After the premiere in Molde, these compositions felt so special that we decided to record this album and play many more concerts with it,” he says.

Booklet for Viaduct