Aaron Steelman for Sea of Tranquility
Russian-American pianist Yelena Eckemoff is back with yet another album, her 23rd. Well, it’s technically listed as a solo album, and she did the composing and arranging, but I would count this one as the effort of a trio. Svante Henryson’s cello and bass playing and Morgan Ågren’s drums and percussion work are at least as important to the sound of Rosendals Garden as Eckemoff’s piano and keyboard sounds. Happily, their names do get prominent placement on the album cover (which, it should be said, is quite visually fetching and was painted by Eckemoff herself).
The album was inspired by Eckemoff’s travels to Sweden, where she met up with Henryson and Ågren, and is supposed to evoke the sights and feelings associated with the places she visited. I’m unfamiliar with Eckemoff’s entire catalog (that would be quite an endeavor) but this one has a more impromptu feeling than last year’s Scenes from the Dark Ages. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising given that it was recorded over only two days. The album combines what might be considered to be more traditional or classic jazz with free-form, sometimes almost atonal, music. It’s quite a heady stew and, for me, quite enjoyable.
But, at roughly 90 minutes, Rosendals Garden is too long, an issue that afflicted Scenes from the Dark Ages as well. The players seem to run out of ideas at various points, and while this might be less of a problem for music of this sort than, say, a vocal-heavy concept album run amok, it’s still a problem. I found myself tuning out at times. Yet, there is enough good, sometimes great, stuff across the album that I can’t give it fewer than four stars. Hopefully, Eckemoff will work on concision with her future efforts and give us an absolute classic.