After last week’s visit to Howard Assembly Room to see a South African cellist who had the audience up on their feet and rocking, this concert could not have been more different. That is the attraction of this venue, apart from the staff and the building itself.
Arve Henriksen is a Norwegian trumpeter and tech player, who specialises in improvisation, as does Harmen Fraanje, his Dutch pianist partner. They are on tour to promote their new album Touch of Time. Their style differs from the improvised jazz I have previously seen and heard, in that, rather than take a piece of familiar music and go their own ways after playing the melody for several bars, they appear to stamp their interpretation on the piece from the start. I could, of course be mistaken, I often am, and the beginnings be self-penned works with which I am not familiar, but I thought not, as there was no apparent melody on which to riff. Don’t get me wrong, there was structure to the pieces as they obviously started and finished in synchronisation.
I had tried to see what I was in for by looking the pair up on the internet, but all I could find was a 30 second clip of a track from the album – see below. I must say that it wasn’t representative of what I witnessed. Fortunately I was seated next to a chap who had come all the way from Sheffield for the concert and had heard Touch of Time in its entirety. He said that this evening was much more experimental than the release, something which he was appreciative of.
Arve Henriksen
Trumpet and piano is not a combination I have come across previously either, but, again, Mr Henriksen managed to produce sounds totally unfamiliar to my ears, via his trumpet and the laptop, which he kept tweaking to provide even more ambience to the atmosphere. Mr Fraaje joined the many people who have been seated at the beautiful Steinway in the room by leaning under the bonnet and plucking the strings. Another few quid for the piano tuner then.
A further difference from last week was the lighting. The brilliant desk operatives in charge of sound, lights and effects, had dimmed the stage to almost total darkness, a mood enhanced by use of a mist machine. The background colours subtly changing with the intensity of the vibes.
Harmen Fraanje
I did struggle to make sense of what I was hearing, so I reverted to my default listening mode of relaxing, closing my eyes and letting the music wash over me. This didn’t last for long as the variety of sounds being produced demanded I watch what was going on. The tonal range of the trumpets was vast, as were the effects produced, which ranged from a whisper when the instrument was simply blown down rather than the tongue and lips being utilised, to the full blown, pardon the pun – OK, don’t – blast. There were two trumpets used, the conventional type and what I believe is called a pocket trumpet, due to its much smaller size. At one point he appeared only to play a mouthpiece.
The laptop produced a range of effects from, what sounded like the sea breaking, to a kind of metallic rainstorm. My ears pricked up at one point when, as well as playing the wind instrument, Arve Henriksen tapped his foot on an upturned box, containing a microphone, which gave a bass beat. This was much more familiar territory for me.
Harmen Fraanje’s piano playing was also very stylised with the previously referred to plucking as well as flamboyant waves of the arms in one piece followed by the merest of touches on the keys.
None of the pieces was given an introduction, apart from one which was described as hazy being a nod to the mist machine. During the riffs of this I am sure I recognised a very small snatch of Jingle Bells, but felt that it could not be true. I reconsidered, however, when the performance was closed by Arve Henriksen wishing us all a Merry Christmas! Perhaps I am not as big a Philistine as I think – then again.
For details of the extensive British and European Tour see https://arvehenriksen.bandzoogle.com/tour-dates
For forthcoming events at Howard Assembly Room it is https://www.operanorth.co.uk/event-tag/har/
Feature image by Opera North. Photographs by Stan Graham
Tyke It To The Limit 