The great, and I use that term not in a cheap way, Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær has a new one today called Be Quiet.
Nearly thirty years after Khmer shook things up by throwing heavy electronic beats and ambient textures into a modernistic jazz blend, this record framed with interesting collaborators has a sort of democracy to it that is beyond a single vision. But, pal, if you crave more of the Khmer approach fine because in more recent years the same issuing label as Be Quiet, Edition has issued Khmer: Live in Bergen.
NPM playing a festival in Serbia last year in the video
More of a leap into carving out a new way forward Be Quiet is a series of slow-burning musical conversations, each captured in a number of big cities.
There is a beautifully sparse meeting in London’s Finsbury Park where Molvær pairs the 65-year-old’s signature whispered trumpet line with the minimalist acoustic piano of Led Zep rock legend John Paul Jones whom NPM played with in Spin Marvel alongside the much missed Martin France (1964-2024). In Hackney, the sound shifts slightly as avant-pop artist Imogen Heap injects her unique vocal layers and electronics into the mix, anchored by live-sampling pioneer Jan Bang’s input.
While I like everything here what I loved most is the ‘München’ track with German cellist Anja Lechner. It sends me instinctively to Lechner’s recording of Bach’s Cello Suite given a sort of shared emotion and even more to the point the huge timeless gravity of the effect achieved on this remarkable track.
The sheer discipline of the melodic lines and that extraordinary feeling that the elegant once-upon-a-time Masqualero gent manages to conjure is very appealing.
Anja’s arco a cappella solo is moving and a surprise when it arrives. It’s like a Jacqueline du Pré moment. Yes, as good as that. Lechner was on marlbank‘s track of the year ‘After the Last Sky’ last year, the poignant Gaza homage led by Anouar Brahem with In A Silent Way great Dave Holland and Loose Tubes sonic sorcerer Django Bates on the form of his life.
What makes Be Quiet hang together so well despite the dizzying miles travelled is the way Molvær – whose sound owes much to Jon Hassell and albums of the great trumpeter’s such as Vernal Equinox and Miles’ In a Silent Way – blends the digital with the organic.
The opener, recorded in Bangkok, finds a lovely groove with guzheng virtuoso Chang Jing, letting the traditional zither’s bent notes curl alongside the relative rigidity by contrast of processed trumpet. I liked ‘Echoes’ their collaboration that came out last year hugely.
An Amsterdam session with Soheil Shayesteh brings the ancient, bowed texture of the Persian kamancheh into the picture, setting it against subtle electronic drones. The album does not get lost down the road less travelled.
With further contributions from electronic producer Alva Noto in Berlin and percussionist Marilyn Mazur (1955-2025), it’s a beautifully disciplined record that shows just how much you can say when you let the silence, or if you prefer the space between the notes, do the heavy lifting. I think of an aphorism of the Buddhist writer and mystic Christmas Humphreys as it is so apt often when listening to this album: “Concentration is the creation of the instrument; meditation is the right use of it; contemplation transcends it.”
So this slice of yes transcendentalism has cheered me up no end as I am a long term fan but haven’t enjoyed NPM’s work as much in recent years not since Switch and his inspired fun reggae collaborations with Sly and Robbie.
But I do love what he does and so listening here is like loving what he does all over again.
I often think of a trip over to Ålesund in Norway some years ago when I met the trumpeter near his island home of Sula where he grew up.
Mercifully I have managed to hear him live a few times, firstly at London’s ICA and more recently back in 2013 at Kings Place again in the capital.
Let’s hope it’s not too long before I get to hear him again as this is so inspiring and this album makes me feel alive. Reader I sincerely hope it does the same to you.
That’s the whole point of flagging it up in a sea of music when only a few records are capable of sending such a humane message in a bottle out there. Without some sort of review even on a tiny blog like this you won’t know about it much given most media’s neglect of quality music.
What I take out of Be Quiet is how much music from so many different traditions is capable of fusing amicably in a collaboration and a parity of esteem when framed in such interesting ways by such an inspired artist as the Norwegian. He has the insight to join all the dots and weave a tapestry of dreams from all these strands for the greater edification of us all.
