Music Codex

Viaticum
by E.S.T.
from 215 Records

Tracks

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• CD 1, Track 1 Tide of Trepidation
• CD 1, Track 2 Eighty-Eight Days in My Veins
• CD 1, Track 3 The Well-Wisher
• CD 1, Track 4 The Unstable Table & The Infamous Fable
• CD 1, Track 5 Viaticum
• CD 1, Track 6 In the Tail of Her Eye
• CD 1, Track 7 Letter from the Leviathan
• CD 1, Track 8 A Picture of Doris Travelling with Boris
• CD 1, Track 9 What Though the Way May Be Long

Music Codexers Reviews

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Customer Reviews

2007-12-30 Piano Trio Magic...

My introduction to E.S.T. came earlier this year when a friend in California who is heavily into jazz tipped me off. I started with Good Morning Susie Soho and became an instant convert. Since then, I have picked up Tuesday Wonderland as well and plan to acquire others. But since Viaticum is not listed here under the heading of Esbjorn Svensson Trio for some reason, I didn't know it existed until I saw it at a great price in a local store.
E.S.T plays on the razor's edge, always interesting but rarely over the top. If you are a fan of the trio's style and haven't heard Viaticum, you are in for a treat. There is a lot to like here in well over an hour of music and very little not to. My favorites are Eighty-Eight Days in My Veins, The Well-Wisher, The Unstable Table and the Infamous Fable, the title cut, Letter From the Leviathan, and a Picture of Doris Travelling With Boris. Many whimsical titles, yes, but much musical pleasure within. About the only aspect of this album which keeps it out of five-star territory are the cacophonies mid-tune on In the Tail of Her Eye and on what seems to be an unlisted song that kicks in after a very long pause (several minutes) following the "last" one. I noticed it only because I did not change it out immediately when I assumed it was done.
Overall, Viaticum is pure piano trio magic. I recommend this CD and E.S.T. to anyone who is likes jazz piano with a little kick to it. I like a lot of jazz and I think Esbjorn Svensson is the finest new wave jazz pianist on the scene today. Listen and hear what I mean!

2007-11-01 profound...

This album combines great melodic beauty with a little bit of avant-guard jazz weirdness to really great effect. Like e.s.t's other offerings it has the simplicity of the trio but with some real complexity and depth as well.

OK, so I can't really describe it. If your a fan of 'smooth jazz' (not me!) this my not be for you but it's not 'out-there-in-a-perpendicular-dimension jazz' (still not me!) either. It has some real melodic hooks, beauty, and a strange intensity. There is a dark, moody and somewhat odd section near the middle that I didn't like at first but I like the transition to the next piece that makes it work.

Anyway, this is on the very short list of best music I've ever heard. Need more stars.

2006-12-02 Edgy, yet accessible....

The Esbjörn Svensson Trio, or EST for short, are simply the hottest European jazz outfit in the world right now. Their brand of highly modernistic instrumental compositions have won plaudits from the likes of Pat Metheny and Jamie Cullum, while critical acclaim has been unrelenting over their 13-year history - auspiciously they became the very first European jazz outfit to grace the front cover of American jazz bible Downbeat.
While maintaining a credible and contemporary edge to their improvisation, the band manage to create instantly accessible and beautiful themes in their music and this is the key to their continued popularity both with audiences and critics alike.
'Viaticum' is set for a similar reception, it's an album that grabs you straight from the off but at the same time demands repeated listening to make sure you catch all the detail.

2006-03-23 Sleight of Band...

I first stumbled across E.S.T. several years ago and have eagerly waited for their newest releases to become available at affordable (to me) prices. Now, for the first time, I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly bless what this innovative trio is up to on their ninth release, "Viaticum." The title, which is a term for a blessing on behalf of a dying person, sets the stage for the darker tone that resonates throughout this recording. But more than the darkness, it's their technique of turning the music inside out that both compels me to keep listening to this CD but at the same time not liking it as much as I hoped I would

Magnus Ostrom's drumming and percussive treatment and Dan Berglund's bass playing (which seems to be more invested in his signature droning than on previous recordings) are more out front on several tracks than Esbjorn Svensson's piano. This inversion is one feature that creates tension in the music. Another form of inversion occurs when the band begins tracks such as The Unstable Table & Infamous Fable with a cacophonous montage which progresses into a piano solo that sounds like it was lifted from a George Winston record back to a wall of jittery sound. And a third type of inversion is how E.S.T. has made silence and space integral to their sound (and once again employed an extended silence in the final track).

The interplay among the three musicians is astounding-yet I cannot quite warm up to this recording. Sometimes, even while listening carefully, I find that I missed the transition and flow from one idea to the next or think that I've been deceived by a "sleight of band" trick or some sort. I will even admit that I'm tempted to speed up the process via fast-forwarding in a couple of places. Maybe in six months or a year, I will have a different opinion.

2005-11-18 Another great EST-album!...

The Esbjorn Svensson Trio is (one of) the best piano-trio's in the world. They prove the statement that it's impossible for jazz to renew itself, without changing it into something completely different to be totally wrong. The trio has been together for a long time, and that you can hear: they really listen to each other.
They have to, because they tend to put so much space or silence in their music, that it would be very hard to play when they didn't.
A lot of jazzcombinations change their strength a lot, and not always in their advantage. At jazzfestivals you here a lot of theme-solo-solo-solo-boringdrumsolo-theme-jazz, and that's allright when the individuals are interesting enough, but a lot of times it's simply not good enough. Somtimes the reason of that is that the bands are so good that they can change their personal a lot, but it doesn't always do the music good. And this is one of the differences between E.S.T. and some other jazzbands you could hear live.

And then there's their tendency to use 'classical' or folkthemes in their music. E.S.T. does that right too: they're not trying anything but to make great music. They're not playing Bach on a banjo (wich is nice, but doesn't really get to you), but they just look (or listen!) for good themes as a base for their music. That's what they do best and that's what makes all of their albums since From Gagarin's Point Of View worth bying.

What makes the music even better is that they seem to bring a lot of elements of their own Scandinavian musical culture into jazz. Maybe that's the explanation of the feeling you get when you see them play live: they really feel what they're playing. And that makes it possible for the audience to feel it to.

E.S.T. is a piano-bass-drums trio, but they sound bigger than a normal trio. Together with the great sound of acoustic instruments they sometimes put in some electronic elements, but they never overdo it. Most of the time they use it as a contast, to keep the balance between 'the beauty and the beast'. A slightly distorted piano can sound like a recording from 1920 and that effect should even be a plus for the traditional jazz-audience.

Esbjorn Svensson is a great pianoplayer. He can set a mood; he plays real good solo's; he almost lives his music. He's able to play very quietly and very loud and sometimes he does both thing within one tune but than a few times. He's very divers in his playing.

The drummer always gets to you. Sometimes he starts of unobstrusively but somewhere he likes to take the song over to give the tune a groove that can't be denied. By Thor, it's not all silence and quietness! Once again it's about the contrast.

On the album Strange Place For Snow you can hear a tune that has the bassplayer doing a very fast riddle together with the piano. The man on the bass used a line 6 pod (for guitar) on the two live shows I saw in Den Haag and Amsterdam to get some special effects. Very normal, considering what's being done in popular music. Also a great musician!

If you don't know anything about E.S.T. it doesn't matter what album since From Gagarin's Point Of View you buy. The ingredients are the same: beautifull themes, contrast, silence, some electronics, acoustic jazz, building up to climax etc.
All this is found on Viaticum too. What apeals to me on this album is the subtlety in the pianoplaying: every note is in the right place, and there's a great balance between free and melodic parts. The band as a whole sounds a bit more like a traditional jazz-band then on the other albums, but still in the unique EST-vocabulary. The classical or folkthemes you can hear on the other albums are a little less prominent on this album. The drumming is a little bit more laid-back, if possible.

Sometimes it's very sad to see that good musicians don't get recognised enough for the things they are doing. And most of the time not because of the people being to stupid to recognise greatness or beauty, but because of comercial and not cultural considerations. When a lot of American jazzmusicians have that problem, what about Scandinavian? E.S.T. must be heared. Buy the album (or another one of E.S.T.) and spred the gospel of Scandinavian jazz!

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This album was release on 2005-10-25.