Much like their VHS Video for Noir, directed and shot by Martina Hoogland Ivanow, the music of Mambo Noir Trio conjures a smokey filled backroom at 9 Rue Gît-le-Cœur in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Presided over by a stone-faced William Burroughs and a smiling Ginsberg who is sat in the corner merrily talking to his drop-out disciples about those Cubop days when he once saw Machito & His Afro-Cubans featuring Jack’s old favourite… ‘Charlie Parker’… “Charlie Parker looked like Buddha…”
There is a dream-like quality to Mambo Noir Trio’s music that just sits in a bygone era and beckons you to stay for “just one more as Paul Bowles will be arriving soon…”, you agree, even though Burroughs is making you feel a little nervous now.
A time when being hip was genuinely cool and once referred to the rebellious Jazz aficionados of the bebop era – how this term went from rebellion to fashion-followers is anybody’s guess – but rest easy as there is a beautiful scene taking place in Stockholm at OONA, more on them below. But first, check out Mambo Noir Trio’s sound with “Noir” which brings together the “resonance of dark exotica and sway of 60´s Latin jazz into the melodic timbre of a Scandinavian archipelago with ‘the jazzy swagger of a lovesick street cat.'”
Mambo Noir Trio is comprised of Matti Bye on piano and electronics (well know for his scores to contemporary films as well as vintage silent movies), Vilhelm Bromander ( Saigon, Musette, Joe Davolaz, Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation) on double bass and Dennis Egberth (Saigon, Joe Davolaz, Taxi Taxi, Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation) on drums and percussion. The recordings were influenced and coloured in by Anders af Klintberg, who produced and mixed the record. Together they form a musical universe that is timidly romantic whilst mysterious undercurrents of danger run throughout.
Mambo Noir Trio treats its source material with a tentative playfulness that allows vibraphone timbres time to diffuse and roll out, while double bass loops keep the musical movement grounded. This approach is somewhat reminiscent of Belgian film composer Francois de Roubaix, with the harmonic nuances of Cuban mambo pianist Ruben Gonzalez’ improvisations thrown in for good measure. Rhythmically the record brings to mind the bluesy, freewheeling sound of the Ethiopian singer, pianist and nun Emahoy Tsegue´-Maryam Guebrou.
The trio’s label is equally interesting – OONA are a freshly launched, Stockholm based, Swedish born audiovisual label. A union of independent artists, OONA was envisioned and initiated by composers Matti Bye, Jon Ekstrand, Rebekka Karijord, Nathan Larson, and Lisa Holmqvist, visual artist Martina Hoogland-Ivanow, designers and art directors Sandberg & Timonen, musician/music enthusiasts John Henriksson and manager/producer/musician Jacob Snavely.
As a multidisciplinary undertaking, OONA is an inviting and inclusive space. Not your conventional record label. Jacob explains it best. “What we are building with OONA is an independent, humanistic, artist-driven label with non-linear thinking; a home for composers and artists creating instrumental, experimental, and non-genre based music.”
We wish to present music in an alternative manner, to approach the format and content of releases from a more immersive angle. We are interested in connecting and exploring parallel narratives between art and artforms. We seek to uncover the languages spoken in the spaces between music, visual arts, text, and poetry. By connecting and presenting these diverse expressions together in new combinations and contexts, we set out to create a richer experience for anyone who enters the world of OONA.
Released September 13th 2019 – cd/lp/dd – Oona Records
Credits:
VHS Video directed and shot by Martina Hoogland Ivanow
Graphics by: Anders af Klintberg
Edited by: Adam Nilsson and Martina Hoogland Ivanow