Klaus Larsen

Copenhagen Art Ensemble - Shape Of Twelve - Music by Lotte Anker (1997) {Dacapo DCCD9430}
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© 1997 Dacapo | DCCD9430
Jazz / Modern Jazz / Jazz Sinfonietta / Small Combo

SHAPE OF TWELVE consists of 8 compositions by saxophonist Lotte Anker (who, along with trombonist Ture Larsen, is one of the artistic directors of the Copenhagen Art Ensemble). The works were composed during 1988-1997 and are mostly of medium length (five tracks clock in between 6 and 7 minutes). The Copenhagen Art Ensemble is described in the liner notes as a “’jazz sinfonietta’ – that is, a group of about a dozen musicians combining the complexity of the traditional big band with the mobility of the small combo.” (Jakob Levinsen) This is a very accurate assessment of the music on this disc and is a capsule review in itself. The instrumentation of the Copenhagen Art Ensemble is essentially 3 trumpets, 4 saxophones, 3 trombones, piano (acoustic and electric), acoustic bass, and drums (with the winds players doubling on flugelhorn, clarinet, flute, and tuba).

It happens so rarely nowadays. Three musicians, who all make their homes in Copenhagen, met for the very first time as a trio in a studio. That initial encounter was recorded, and an extremely fine record is the result. The instigator was Danish drummer Morten Lund. The seed was sown in a conversation with Norwegian-born saxophonist Marius Neset and Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson, when all three were travelling back by train to Copenhagen from Jazz Baltica in 2012. That encounter gave Lund the idea that a session like this could work. Danielsson and Lund were already familiar with each other from their work in groups led by Caecilie Norby and Ulf Wakenius. Marius Neset had hardly ever played with either the bassist or the drummer. “The saxophone/ bass /drums trio gives space and freedom”, says Lund. “I felt that the three of us…

Listeners might quibble over whether the 100 pieces collected here constitute precisely THE most relaxing classical music in the whole universe, but it can't be denied that this music is in fact mellow and relaxing, except for perhaps the Prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, which might get the blood pumping at its climax. The pieces are all instrumental and the tracks are weighted toward orchestral music of the Baroque, Romantic, and post-Romantic periods, although the Classical and Modern periods aren't entirely neglected, and there is some chamber music and keyboard music.