TERJE RYPDAL

I've was first made aware of Terje Rypdal in 1992. I bought Odyssey in 1993 and Whenever I Seem to be Far Away in 1994, but it was only very recent that I bought more of his albums (probably because I was concentrating on collecting stuff from other artists). It was only with the advent of the Internet that I was able to find out what he released before What Comes After, and that's Bleak House in 1968 on Polydor, which is extremely hard to find as an original, and this self-entitled ECM debut (he's already appeared on a few ECM albums in 1970/'71, this is his first simply billed as Terje Rypdal). He gets plenty of help, like Jon Christensen (as he seems to be a Rypdal regular), Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen, Inger Lise Rypdal (Terje's wife at the time), Tom Halversen, Bjørnar Andresen, Bobo Stenson, and Eckehard Fintl. Of course Jan Garbarek and Aril Andersen had made names for themselves, and we know Inger Lise Rypdal's relation to Terje, not to mention Jon Christensen appearing on many of Terje's other albums, some of the musicians seem to be very obscure (Eckehard Fintl, for example) as I can't seem to dig much info on them.

Having been familiar with several of his other (more famous) 1970s albums including Odyssey, I'm so happy to get this early release. It's one of those albums I wished I owned back in when I first heard of him, but that one was hard to find (as many early ECM titles). "Keep it Like That - Tight" tends to use that post-Bitches Brew fusion format here, with lots of similarities (one commented Terje should have replaced John McLaughlin in Miles Davis' band). It starts off pretty calm, but it picks up steam towards the end. "Rainbow" really trips me out. Clearly in the Third Stream, it's basically a very eerie orchestral number sounds like a jazz version of Tangerine Dream's Zeit, it has that similar sinister otherworldly feel. It really trips me out, and in fact I wished this was how side two of Whenever I Seem to Be Far Away was more like. "Electric Fantasy" is pretty tripped out fusion , especially those wordless female voices from Lise. "Lontano II" is another really strange and eerie piece, while "Tough Enough" is a bit more bluesy, almost a Bleak House throwback, but with that contemporary (for 1971) sound. Odyssey may be his best known work, but I feel this 1971 album is actually his best one, and one of the best ECM releases alongside John Abercrombie's Timeless and Julian Priester's Love, Love. Truly one of his most trippy albums. Like I said, an album I wished I knew of and owned back in the early '90s. Great stuff that I highly recommend.