STRANGE ADVENTURES OF JESPER KLINT

Description

Following their debut album Elastic Bricks (Umlaut Records, 2022), which explored new possibilities within the standard song format, the trio Oùat is releasing a double LP of music by Swedish pianist Per Henrik Wallin. The Strange Adventures of Jesper Klint reawakens and revitalizes the legendary ideas and sounds of Wallin's trio recordings, released under the title Coyote (Dragon 320). Per Henrik Wallin (1946-2005) was a Swedish pianist, jazz musician, and composer who actively questioned his environment with a composite and free form of musical creation—especially in a trio setting. In his childhood home in Karlsborg, he was inspired by the sudden bursts of early jazz greats like Art Tatum and Fats Waller. Very quickly, he played swing in cafés (with Sven-Åke Johansson, among others) while pursuing philosophy studies. Inspired by literature, the idea of personal expression, and the timing of bebop and free jazz, his own groups gained recognition from the 1970s for their inexhaustible sound and stubborn energy. The precise, and therefore risky, keyboard touch and the deep understanding of jazz and classical repertoires heard in his music (without excluding humor) are true guides, displaying the inevitable and eternal ways of making music true to one's personal expression. Resisting the pull of industrialized popular music and astounding cultural policies, his music was in constant confrontation with listeners and their environment. It questioned, "But who are you, then?" "Oùat not only manages to interpret the original music with curiosity and precision, but also to advance the music and make the compositions their own. This group is also a delight to watch live, where their complicity and pure musicality are evident and contagious."