ODYSSEY

Forget about the 'jazz rock' label. For my money, this is one of the proggiest, trippiest and most ecstatic guitar prog CDs ever recorded. As long as you're willing to accept Rypdal's now-rather-outdated string synthesizer (which only provides occasional backing anyway) you're in for a real treat!

Rypdal and his band generally lay down slow, melancholic grooves, on top of which the organist and the trombone player (as well as the band leader on occasional soprano sax) perform slow, dreamy solos - but the highlights of this album are Terje's highly poignant solos on lead guitar. Whenever you think Rypdal couldn't possibly move you more, his guitar sings out even stronger than before. He truly conquers heights other guitarists cannot reach, and part of the beauty lies in his plangent use of vibrato. In the mid-seventies Rypdal was young, and the ECM label gave him all the freedom he needed to record the sort of music he wanted to play. You can tell he's out there to put his name on the map. Every single note comes from the core of his soul.

Most of ODYSSEY's music is nocturnal and melancholic in style (while those soaring guitar solos take everything to a different level); but "Over Birkerot" is dark, grim, instrumental rock (not unrelated to Larks Tongues-era King Crimson), and the final track (on this particular CD release at least) is a superb, sonata-like romance.

ODYSSEY was originally released as a double LP. Unfortunately, the 'final album side' (which contained just one long track, "Rolling Stone") has never been available on CD.

Did you think the Norwegian fjords couldn't sing? Think again! This album is a triumph.

P.S. I add this note in 2024, to point out that, just over a decade ago, ECM finally released ODYSSEY: IN STUDIO & IN CONCERT featuring all of the original double album, PLUS a superb, nearly 68-minute piece called 'Unfinished Highballs'. For anyone seriously interested in ODYSSEY, that's the place to go.

This is mostly dark, dreamy and experimental Jazz. I must admit I was disappointed with this one after being so impressed with "Whenever I Seem So Far Away". Guitar, trombone, sax, strings and organ lead the way, although bass and drums are prominant at times.The strings and organ really give this music it's spacey and dreamy flavour. Oh and it's slow paced too.

"Darkness Falls" opens with the crying guitar of Terje that goes on for 1 1/2 minutes as bass and drums sounds can be heard in the background. Trombone then takes over for the guitar briefly until the guitar returns before 2 1/2 minutes to end it. The guitar is mournful. "Midnite" opens with bass as light drums and organ come in. The same bass line is played over and over throughout the song. Sax after 2 minutes. The song just sort of drifts along until guitar comes in around 10 1/2 minutes. Organ is more prominant after 13 minutes. A sad, repetitive track that's as cold as Norway in the winter. "Adagio" is spacey to begin with as organ comes in waves, eventually joined by strings. This is quite haunting. Sax 5 minutes in is replaced by the guitar 7 minutes in. The guitar is crying out for the most part then screaming 11 minutes in. I must admit the guitar in the latter half of this song gets on my nerves at times. Not exactly background music. Haha.

"Better Off Without You" is again spacey as guitar soundscapes come and go while organ and light drums play on. It builds slowly. Some scorching guitar sounds 5 1/2 minutes in. "Over Birkerot" sounds interesting as guitar and drums lead the way as these deep sounds come and go. The tempo picks up 2 minutes in as Terje lets it rip on his guitar. Nice. "Fare Well" has this spacey and haunting intro. Eerie guitar a minute in cries out. Sax after 2 minutes. Guitar is back after 4 minutes joined by sax. This is dark and sad folks. Guitar is prominant again before 7 minutes with french horn joining in and strings. Sax returns as guitar stops. Guitar is crying out 9 1/2 minutes in. This is slow and melancholic. "Ballade" opens with organ as trombone, bass and light drums come in. The guitar starts to make some noise until it's dominating 2 1/2 minutes in with some scorching melodies. It stops 4 minutes in as organ and sax take over.

This one is more about painting bleak soundscapes than anything else.

Don't know much about this excellent guitarist and composer. But when I stumble upon the name Terje Rypdal ... which occurs here and there ... it immediately reminds me of 'Over Birkerrot'. When I heard this song for the first time in the 70s I was flabbergasted so to say. It surely was the same decade ... don't ask me when exactly ... and I took the chance to see him performing on the stage with his band when they had a gig at my hometown. Very impressing what I can remember. It must have been the second half to be more precise, because they played, if not all, at least the majority of the songs from this album ... including my favourite.

I once owned this album as a double vinyl, including 'Rolling Stone' which was omitted for the following CD re-issues then, what I know. My LPs are out of order unfortunately ... and are resold to some collectors in the meanwhile .. this means I have no clue anymore, what this song is all about. 'Odyssey' holds some sort of excentric fusion music coupled with a slight symphonic approach. That said you'll find many sentimental parts, just take the trombone contributions for example. This is relaxed mostly, interwoven ambient respectively spacey elements caused by the organ ... and Rypdal's guitar is often lost in reverie. Melancholy pure to sum it up.

All in all dreamy Midnite - now the longest track indeed - is dominated by a hypnotic bass line. The trombone has a big solo part here. Adagio comes classically tinged due to some strings and Better Off Without You represents Sweetnighter (Weather Report) inspirations I would say. And I really like Ballade - another dreamy composition - with Rypdal's expressive varied guitar work, a bit McLaughlin reminiscent, very emotional.

In some way differing to the rest of the songs Over Birkerrot comprises an improv/jam approach, even if this is a relatively short exemplar. I always had regrets, why made that compactly? There is so much potential. Never mind - this swings, grooves, drummer Svein Christiansen is responsible due to his enormous drive. Who is the better virtuoso? Rypdal with his multiple guitar layers and organ player Brynjulf Blix are competing here, fantastic! Tornbjørn Sunde shows some nearly scary deep toned trombone contributions.

I'm not familiar with his other work, but quite sure anyhow that this is a valuable recommendation for a Rypdal newbie, an excellent piece of work in any case - provided with some typical Nordic dark mooded flavour.

Terje's continuing adventures with ECM were beginning to transform in a love affair, to the point that Manfred allowed Rypdal to release a double disc affair, which I believe in 75 was the label's first. This album features the usual "Rypdal Norwegian Whale-fishing crew" suspects, despite the strange choice of a trombonist as the unique horn player, outside of the master's own sax twiddlings. Apparently the remaster of this album lists also a French horn player as well, and this could be explained that he only appeared on side 4 of the album, which is not on the first CD reissue. Oh BTW, the album's name has nothing to do with mythology, so if you're into concept album, you'll be disappointed.

Anyway, we're facing a relatively quiet album, with plenty of atmospheric moments, most of it created by Blix's organ (no other Kb played), but also Terje's strident and aerial guitar wails. Indeed, by the time of this album's release, Terje was fine-tuning his typical guitar style (well somewhere between Oldfield and Hackett), and he'll have plenty of time to achieve it over the course of these two discs. Lengthy and gliding tracks like Midnite, Adagio, Fare Well are just excuses to allow Terje to wail, soar, reign, dominate his team- mates heads and shoulders. Actually, when not on his guitar, Rypda is laying out some synth layers from his String Ensemble rig, but he's not a Tangerine Dream member, and there are way too many useless meanders and other lengths (thinking of Adagio amongst other), and the whole thing is uneventful. One could call this album "new age" if the term had been coined much sooner, so I suppose that many described it as cosmic or spacey, which I think might be a tad misleading, partly because of Rypdal's guitar sometimes leaving its annoying aerial wails to come down and growl a bit in the lower registers, like in my album-fave Better Off Without You, and Birkerot, where he really unleashes. Fare Well is actually quite annoying, because Terje's strident guitars are really aggravating and irritating to my left ear, and switching channel speakers won't help, because after two minutes, the right ear is sore. Ballade is self-explanatory and boring except maybe for Terje's guitar growls when it doesn't soar searingly.

A rare double ECM album, but given the result, no wonder Manfred didn't release that many more and its CD reissue has been shortened by the D-sidelong Rolling Stone track; which by its name, might have been the rockier or energetic track of the album. Never heard it, though. This is the kind of ECM album that you can feel glad it has an end and relief comes once it stops spinning or by pushing the eject button. Definitely not my cup of tea, outside two or three (shorter) tracks.

Third Stream, or jazz and classical music ... The combination of these events is ... up to interpretation, but generally there are jazz folks that are playing with a symphony orchestra. The end result is something that was considered new by Gunther Schuller, around the late 1950's, and something that helped add to the listening palette all around, and specially important for jazz folks, who for a long time were keen on making sure that jazz got a leg up on music, instead of it being just some pop kind of music.

Modern music came about for its ability to free form and try to break the shackles of the rigidity of a lot of classical music and scores. Jazz was, originally, a title that was given to music that had more freedom, and was not considered classical, or important, because of the personal style in the music. One could say, that classical music tends to diminish the individuality in favor of an idea about the music ... jazz is almost totally opposite that since it is usual, for anyone to think up ideas about what the music is, or represents ... I like to suggest it is like the wind ... it's just the wind ... and we don't define it beyond that!

Terje Rypdal, at least for the work he did on "ODYSSEY", (not based on stories btw), is Terje's personal experience. To be more accurate, to hear his guitar experimenting on top of music, that had some jazz leanings, but in many ways, sounds different, even allowing us to think that this might be a riff for a pop song ... and here, we get surprised ... it doesn't break into a "song" ... it continues allowing the guitar its freedom.

Terje Rypdal was doing this some 15 years after that idea was defined, and it is possible/likely that he might have perfected it better, even though one got the notion that it was strictly an improvisation from beginning to the end, which is not something that we worry about in the jazz culture at all. When hearing "ODYSSEY", it does not feel like something new is being tried out, although it is possible that Manfred Eicher (ECM RECORDS) probably thought this was far out and specially different from what he was doing with his label, that was infused with a lot of experiments at the time, many of which fit the European styles of music adventures ... with a large history of classical music, the evolution of jazz was very natural in Europe, whereas in America it was more individual and solo related, and not close to anything considered classical until later. And then, in America, we get someone going a hundred percent against the norm, and the pattern in America ... we got Miles Davis who blew out the house, and likely cleaned up his free form in Europe, where he knew he could do anything he wanted.

ODYSSEY is a wonderful album, but something that might take some good ear tuning to be appreciated. The only thing that is clear, and easier to pick up, is that everything in this album is but a background to what Terje Rypdal will do with his guitar, or any other instrument. Terje is joined by a strong organ (Brynjulf Blix) player, and a bass guitar (Sveinung Hovensjo) and drums (Svein Christiansen) and occasionally a trombone (Tornbjorn Sunde).

It is an interesting touch ... the background is a quiet, meditative like sound, that contrasts the guitar really well, but the surprise is that ... it works ... it doesn't sound odd or out of place, and the pieces are very nice and enjoyable, even though some folks are going to say this is not exactly jazz, though the background certainly is ... and you almost could say that Terje Rypdal is doing a really good impression of Miles Davis with a totally different instrument, but no less expressive in any way at all.

And this album is his 6th ... which would suggest that Terje is very comfortable with what he did, though I can not say (and will check it out) his earlier material.

The special pieces here are the long ones ... Midnight, Adagio and Fare Well, all stand out a lot. A later release had another long piece ... Rolling Stone which was even longer and I believe it was on the LP when it first came out as a double, though not on the first CD released in 1988.

A very special album, and in many ways, I would even suggest a must have in one's jazz collection, specially as the mix of classical and jazz was not as visible at the time of its release.

Outstanding album. A must have for folks that are jazz'd out there! Think of Miles on electric guitar ... and then close your eyes while listening!