ELSA NILSSON’S BAND OF PULSES

LIMINAL

Adhayaropa Records

Elsa Nilsson, flute/FX/composer; Santiago Leibson, piano; Marty Kenney, electric & acoustic bass; Rodrigo Recabarren, drums.

To begin their first tune, Elsa Nilsson makes a solo appearance on a song called “Andetag” playing her flute to us in a very free and unencumbered way. When her musicians join the arrangement, they are as ethereal as her solo performance was.  The piano of Santiago Leibson improvises on Nilsson’s theme and Marty Kenney walks his bass beneath, locking in with Rodrigo Recabarren’s drums.  Nilsson is the wild bird that flies above the rhythm section on her own unique flight pattern. This opening tune represents freedom in every shape and form. When Marty Kenney takes his bass solo, he settles the arrangement down briefly.  But for the most part, this opening tune sets the stage for what is to come.

“Transition Station” is track two on this album and sneaks up on us, just the bass instrument at first, like creepy footsteps behind you as you walk. Then Kenney is joined by Nilsson’s flute, trembling in a high register above the dramatic walking bass, creating her own melody.  What I miss is a groove.  The openness of this music does not invite a beat I can lock into or a pulse I can tap my toe with, or a groove to snap my fingers to.  This is free jazz. It makes me question the group’s title, “Band of Pulses.”

On a song like “Not Said, Not Heard” they continue with this free-spirited music. The album title, “Liminal” means a boundary or threshold; a transition point or a state of being in-between.  Perhaps that explains these original compositions and arrangements by Elsa Nilsson that proceed without a beat, never to establish a groove. On this song, the tempo actually edges up gradually towards the fade of the arrangement.

The eight tracks, all written by the flautist, are meant to give shape and pulse to the “in-between,” translating her lived experiences into musical statements that are somewhat fragile and otherworldly.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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