This album came into being after Mariam Wallentin stayed in Basel in the spring of 2023. Her hotel room alongside The Rhine (pictured on the album sleeve) proved a stimulating source of inspiration for her. She recalls: “I encountered spring in a new place. I saw the green breaking through and the water rushing along, accompanied by entirely different scents and temperaments than at home.”
From these memories you would be forgiven for expecting a calm, reflective record evoking introspective emotions. However, when she took her crumbled notes and song fragments to the Duper Studio in Bergen, the West Norwegian Jazz Ensemble she met there had other ideas.
There are some meditative moments that beautifully complement Wallentin’s rich, smoky vocals but these are interspersed with bursts of freak-out energy to keep listeners on their toes and give the record a lively and unexpected edge .
Mariam Wallentin is a Swedish musician and voice actress known for her roles in Wildbirds & Peacedrums, the Fire! Orchestra, and her solo project Mariam The Believer.
Vestnorsk Jazzensemble (The West Norwegian Jazz Ensemble) is a project-based ensemble that brings together freelance musicians from Western Norway in ever-changing line-ups.Saxophonist Kjetil Møster currently serves as artistic director.
The collaboration was initially intended as an exploratory rehearsal but evolved into a brief yet fruitful interplay of ideas. This resulted in the whole record being completed in just two days.
It consists of seven original pieces and a vibrant revamp of Wildbirds & Peacedrums’ Love Is Fire. Three of the pieces are little more one or two minute stubs but contribute to a record that glides seamlessly for just over 34 minutes.
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In the seven minute opening song Blanket Dance, Wallentin’s sultry voice seems solitary at first but half way through she sings/speaks the question “Do you dare to dance for me?” and the ensemble’s response is clearly in the affirmative as the track kicks into a delicious reggae-infused shimmer of highly danceable rhythms. It is at this moment you know you are in store for a special album rather than a self-indulgent drift of half-formed ideas.
Lyrically, Basel is built around sleepy thoughts which appear to be prompted by the river’s proximity ( “waking up remembering that I don’t know how to dive”) and the free-flowing musical arrangement feels loose and organic to match her drifting impressions.
In Red and Wide there are slightly darker atmospheres but never a sense of stasis thanks to the harp textures, rich strings, percussive beats and driving rhythm section.
The cathartic title track ends the record on a frenzied yet perfectly controlled high.
'Spring Flood' is an album about movement that taps into a musical incentive to go with the flow and delight in the outcome.
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