It's refreshing to hear, especially in the modern music business, how many risks an artist is prepared to take, especially when said artists are putting their reputation on the line. But then again, where it's true enough that investing on a project where the artist in question is ready to give full space for improvisation to their fellow musicians playing on the record can be seen as a bit risky, it's also true that by giving that space for creativity to those musicians, they will feel themselves trusted enough to help creating a body of work for the artist in question that will push themselves to give the best of their musicianship.
For those that have been fortunate enough to hear a Free-Form Jazz album of the caliber of Sou Makuri, by the Scandinavia-based quintet Shinken Shobu, they will be perhaps inclined to share our website's feeling, about this precious and delightful album, given its high quality content.
A project created by one of the most talented and visionary Harp players in the world of Contemporary Jazz, Stina Hellberg Agback, Shinken Shobu, which in Japanese language means "Dead serious", is a collective that assembles some of the most appreciated and loved Jazz Virtuosos in Europe right now, namely Filip Augustsson on Bass Guitar, Eva Lindal on Violin, Alberto Pinton on Reed Instrumentation and Jon Fält on Drums, all musicians with an impressive background, just like Agback herself and gifted enough to be able to push Free-Form Jazz into uncharted territories, where melody meets sonic experimentation and constructively applied playfulness to soften any musical edge with gusto and class.
The story behind Sou Makuri (which means Full Resolution in Japanese language) comes from a stage in the personal and artistic life of Agback, where the Swedish Harp Prodigy went through a period of "profound personal reflection", as stated by the artist herself, where the idea of putting together a project like Shinken Shobu came about as a sort of cathartic moment of Agback's career up to that point. The outcome of such deep reflection brought Stina Hellberg Agback to the decision of, on one hand, to take full responsibility of the project, that including doing the complete writing of the record and leading the project too, while, on the other hand, get ready to trust unconditionally each of the band members in paving the musical playground written by the talented Swedish Harp player in the most instinctive and apt fashion, so to meet Agback's compositional standards and vision for this project.
Understanding the circumstances in which Sou Makuri was born, as a record, it will make even more understandable for the listener to follow the unspoken narrative occurring in the nine pieces part of this highly creative and beautifully played album.
From the opening composition called 21:an, a piece where improvisation, unpredictable changes of tempo and impressively cohesive interplay are at the core of this composition, right to the closing piece called Leva Om Sitt Liv (Live Your Life Again), containing a very pensative, melodic mood running through the whole piece, one can sense what might have gone through into the mind and soul of Agback, during the period of personal and artistic struggle she confessed to go through, prior to the release of Sou Makuri.
Seen as a concept album, in many ways Sou Makuri can be perceived as a human being's Soul Progression, in which the nine compositions included in the album represents, in its beginning part, the willing to explore different musical alleyways, not knowing exactly which one could make sense the most to the Swedish artist, where the central part could be "felt" by the listeners as the growing consciousness of the artist on letting the music flows on its own accord, without restrictions or barriers, to then reach the conclusive part, the happy finale where a piece like Leva Om Sitt Liv (Live Your Life Again) feels like liberation, calm, peace, the feeling to have expressed exactly what the artist had inside.
In all this process, while Stina Hellberg Agback guides and directs superbly the Shinken Shobu collective through her mind-blowingly inventive Harp playing, it's also fair to say that, in every step of the way, each of the band members brought too so much class and stunning musicianship to the materialisation of this great music project.
Sou Makuri is not only a wonderfully inspired record played by superb musicians, but also an ode to musical purity, where there are no defined sonic highways to be followed and where music becomes a journey of just instinct and vision, supported by sheer class.
Which is exactly what musicianship, at its very highest, is all about.
Sou Makuri is out now and it is available to be purchased via Stina Hellberg Agback's Official Bandcamp Page
