Wild Geese (Vinyle LP) / Near the Pond

Description

Without an official name when their first record was released in 2021, the musicians finally chose to adopt the title of that very album—Near The Pond—to name their band. This transatlantic collective, born from the friendship between singer Josefine Cronholm, double bassist Thommy Andersson, and cornet player Kirk Knuffke, has since expanded with the arrival of Danish Bent Clausen on drums and vibraphone, replacing American Kenny Wollesen who participated in the first recording. After drawing inspiration from American-Swedish poet and writer Carl Sandburg for their first album, the musicians took an unexpected artistic turn with this new opus, Wild Geese. This time, they drew their inspiration from the work of Japanese poet Saigyo (1118-1190). Saigyo is now considered a major figure in Japanese literature. It's reasonable to think that he never would have imagined his verses crossing centuries and continents to become music, played on instruments not yet invented... It was during a stay in New York that Josefine Cronholm stumbled upon a collection of his poems. Deeply moved, she conveyed her enthusiasm to the rest of the group. These poems are written in the classic Japanese waka style, and since no member of Near The Pond speaks Japanese, they used English translations of ten poems as a starting point for the music of Wild Geese. In his writings, Saigyo observes nature with fascination, capturing both its beauty and its ephemeral quality. He is also interested in the passage of time and humanity's place in an ever-changing world. This clear yet profound view of the world immediately resonated with the musicians, who found in it the same evocative power and economy of means they already cherished in Carl Sandburg.