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River Of Time

Niels Lan Doky

Label: Inner Adventures
Released: 2020
Duration: 01:04:00
Views: 1,178

Tracks

1. Pink Buddha 2. River Of Time 3. Greasy Sauce 4. Sita’s Mood 5. Are You Coming With Me? 6. World Peace 7. Houellebecq 8. Hope 2020 9. Nature Of The Business (bonus track cd only)

Personnel

Album Description

With song titles such as River Of Time, World Peace and Hope 2020, it is obvious that Niels Lan Doky’s new album is primarily a reflection on life and the state of the world. However, he also gets personal with a love driven piece like Sita’s Mood and offers an ironic and humorous commentary on political correctness and gastronomic pretentiousness with Greasy Sauce. On a slightly more serious note, he explores Western adaptation of Eastern spirituality with the song Pink Buddha and reflects on the controversial French best-selling author Michel Houellebecq with a composition bearing his last name. Finally - and one of the highlights of the album - is the sparkling and engaging call-to-action piece entitled Are You Coming With Me? With the highly unusual instrumentation of just piano, tambourine and bass drum. All in all, a highly enjoyable, inspiring, engaging and compelling abstract poetic musical depiction of the world at this present moment and a summary of the life on an artist who on his 1986 debut was hailed as “for the first time a young Jazz musician of real stature, someone who can make you feel that the future of the music is in good hands” and in 2019 was called “one of the most important pianists that European jazz has given us in the last 45 years.” Niels’ Danish/Scandinavian influences have been omnipresent in his music since before his recording debut - rendering him distinctly different from his American counterparts. Upon moving to the USA in the early 80s, a longing for his motherland made him more aware of his roots and soon he realized that his personal brand of Scandinavian lyricism made him stand out from the crowd on the fiercely competitive jazz scene of New York City. As a result he started to consciously cultivate his Nordic side, which became even further enhanced during his long-standing collaboration with Danish bass legend Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, which began in 1986 and lasted through most of the 90s - during which time NHØP initially mentored Niels and helped him shape and define his musical direction. An obvious question arises: What exactly is this Nordic/Danish/Scandinavian component? For many generations, Scandinavians have lived in symbiosis with nature and close to the sea. They are marked by the changing seasons and their sharp contrasts. During the long winters they remain mostly inside to stay warm and light candles, being reflective and melancholic, longing for the joy of Spring and anxiously awaiting the sparkle of Summer. At the same time, Denmark happens to be the most Southern part of Scandinavia. Its capital of Copenhagen has been called the Paris of the North. Historically, it has been a cultural melting pot unlike any other city in the region. The city’s large community of American jazz expats over the years attest to that fact, some of the genre’s greatest icons have lived there and inevitably changed the local Danish jazz landscape forever. As a result of all of the above, the music of Niels Lan Doky embodies a unique blend between Nordic reflection and melancholy - and American swing and tradition. His new album “River Of Time” - recorded with his regular trio comprised of two phenomenal musicians and next-generation fellow-Danes, bassist Tobias Dall and drummer Niclas Bardeleben - explores and celebrates this dualism and turns the synthesis of Danish and American culture into a fully integrated symbiosis.

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Improvisation on Life