Dahlias (A to Z Challenge)

These are my favorite flowers in a garden or bouquet and the prettiest Dahlias in my opinion are the purple ones.  The purple flowers are tied to royalty, pride, success, accomplishment and admiration.

When given as a gift, the dahlia flower expresses sentiments of dignity and elegance. It is also the symbol of a commitment and bond that lasts forever. The dahlia flower is still used today in…

Anders Dahl & Skogen – 'Rows' (Another Timbre, 2013)

Skogen (Swedish for 'Forest' or 'Woods') is a medium-size ensemble (starting as a quintet, the group presented here is an octet) founded by pianist-composer Magnus Granberg specialising in minimalist improvisation and composition, this being its second CD for the excellent Sheffield-based Another Timbre label (they have since recorded a third as a nine-piece). The ensemble includes label mainstay Angharad Davies on violin, a renowned minimalist improviser who has worked with Rhodri Davies, Mark Wastell (on his own Confront label) and Axel Dorner (on the excellent duo 'A.D', also on Another Timbre) among many others.

Leading the ensemble here is Anders Dahl, who provides the overall concept for the record: an exploration of 12-tone composition, the players are provided in each piece with a sequence of notes which they are permitted to play in any register, at any volume and for any duration; only the notes themselves, and the order in which they are played, are fixed. The sensitivity to pitch relationships and dynamics with which the more conventional instrumentalists of Skogen – variously playing clarinet, violins, tuned percussion and piano – realise this concept results in a fragile, dreamy soundworld with elements of Webern (use of space and very wide intervals, delicacy) and Morton Feldman (indeterminacy and low dynamic level) about it, but not completely beholden to either.

Left at that, the record might have been effectively realised by a group of suitably-attuned classical players, but Dahl adds another rule to the game which really plays to the strength of the improvisers involved - the additional freedom of producing any unpitched sound at any point. This gives Petter Wastberg (on objects/contact mics/feedback) and Toshimaru Nakamura (on no-input mixing board) in particular the space to do their respective 'things' – there are several points on this disc where Wastberg really runs amok while the players of more conventional instruments hold down pitches from the note rows, with Nakamura tending towards more sustained, supportive textures – as well of course as allowing all the other instrumentalists to leave their rows too and interact on a textural level. A third dimension then arises from these rules when the two are combined – infusing tones from the rows with the degree of timbral flexibility only really available to improvisers.

Dahl's concept is realised by Skogen with customary restraint, despite (or perhaps because of) the number of players involved, with individuals only occasionally coming to the foreground. The ensemble displays remarkable fluidity, groups-within-a-group constantly flowing in and out of each other, simultaneously a product of the conceptual framework and of group improvisation - and herein lies this project's strength and originality. The question or problem of composition vs improvisation is one that still exercises a great many musicians and groups working today, and many of the answers, tied into various ideological camps as they are, are well familiar by now: 12-tone composition might be a well-travelled idea, but once carefully refracted through the prism of improvisation a refreshing, illuminating new solution is found in 'Rows'.