I had never heard of this album until very recently
when I stumbled upon it by chance. To be honest, I had never heard of
Runo Ericksson's name either until then. At least not knowingly. I
have, however, heard his trombone before – he appears on numerous
recordings by artists mostly in the jazz field, including national
treasures Jan Johansson, Monica Zetterlund and Mikael Ramel's dad
Povel Ramel. And strangely yet – he's present on one of my all-time
favourite jazz albums, George Russell's dazzling live album ”The
Essence Of George Russell”! But somehow, his name never registered in my
memory.
In my defence, Runo Ericksson played a successful
hide-and-seek spending lots of time abroad, from the end of the 60's
mostly in Switzerland. Prior to that, he studied under Romanian
conductor Sergiu Celibidache and French composer, conductor and Polar
Music Prize winner Pierre Boulez.
Being something of the
eternal sideman, ”Omnibus” was his first – and as far as I
know, his only – album as a leader. Recorded in Switzerland with
Swiss, Austrian and American musicians, it was released on Swedish
label Four Leaf Clover in 1980. And what an album it is!
Taking cues from both spiritual jazz, free jazz
and Eastern traditions, it's an elevated work of art, dripping with
mysticism without ever getting cheesy (like a lot of spiritual jazz
does). It's musically sparse but emotionally dense, and although it
often turns its attention inwards, it's never insular or arrogant.
”Omnibus” has a wide-open heart and welcoming arms; an intense
care for the listener. It's also no stranger to surprises, as in
”Fiddeling” when a Swedish folk tune suddenly bursts through but
vividly coloured with bright Indian pigments. The pieces move
lightly, sometimes so lightly they seem to levitate and lit
the air with the beautiful colours of the music. I'm not a fan of
jazz guitar, but here, Harry Pepl's guitar smoothly adjusts to the
essence of the sometimes eerie groove of the collective. This is a masterpiece of an album, unique and strangely detached from
time, sometimes bordering on psychedelic in spirit but always moving in its own mysterious ways, never failing to stun,
captivate, and amaze.
Saturday, June 18, 2022
RUNO ERICKSSON'S OMNIBUS – Runo Erickson's Omnibus (Four Leaf Clover, 1980)
Instrumental
International
relevance: ***
Thanks for letting us know about this great album. I'm just curious, this is meant to be a stereo LP but the audio on the youtube playlist - the only place I've found this online - appear to be effectively mono. If you open the audio in a program to view the waveform the left and right channels are identical. Is this an accurate representation, or are we actually missing one channel? It does sound a little 'hollow' as though this rip only used one of two channels but copied it into the missing channel to create false stereo.
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