Reviews 2117
This is exuberant and occasionally unique playing - merry, vamping melodies get befuddled, hover on the edge of really swinging, and drift in and out of freer territory. Roligheten bashes out some percussive key-tapping and reed abuse to switch up the palette at times, just as fellow Scandos Håkon Kornstad or Mats Gustafsson might do. An emotionally complex, big-hearted set. 4/5.
Uncut (UK)
Albatrosh are the twentysomething Norwegian duo of pianist Eyolf Dale and saxophonist André Roligheten. Star composer Maria Schneider hailed their "great interplay and amazing improvisation, effective and colorful compositions" when they won the Best Band prize at the North Sea festival in 2009, and this third album illustrates what she meant. Sometimes they operate in a subdued free-improv space populated with sly multiphonic sax sounds and tinkling piano, sometimes they are quirkily dynamic, and the balance between meticulous, integrated composition and improv freedom is imaginatively struck. Pieces such as Linedance and Pickup Truck rattle through fast, intertwined postbop melodies bristling with percussive sax blurts and cop-show piano rumbles, while slow features such as Central Park and Pannebrask explore deep, sax-ballad sighs or tone-bending meditations. Both players are formidable improvisers, but the quality of their compositions makes that task easier - it's a combination of elements that suggests the sax / piano conversations of Julian Arguelles and John Taylor. 4/5.
The Guardian (UK)
Seen from one angle, this pliable young Norwegian duo could be slotted squarely in the lineage of Keith Jarrett's exalted work with Jan Garbarek in the 1970s: all the identifying traits are there, from the classical poise to the emotional ardor to the intimation of melodic caprice . But there's more to Albatrosh - which is to say, the pianist Eyolf Dale and the saxophonist André Roligheten - than any sort of pigeonholing could allow. "Yonkers" (Rune Grammofon), the duo's third album, is an outright joyride, full of sprightly intricacies ("Linedance") and boppish contingencies ("Fifths") and meditative spaces ("Central Park"). Mr. Roligheten has a brusque but appealing tone on tenor saxophone, and Mr. Dale extracts rich sonorities from the piano; their fundamentals are sound. But it's their intuitive chemistry that lifts the album to another plane,
New York Times (US)
Albatrosh weave inspired improvised passages into compositions for piano and saxophone. The results are eight short pieces which build upon their own economy of sound and length in order to create a colorfully impressionistic music. The interplay between Dale on piano and Roligheten on sax is never less than perfectly intuitive, while always allowing for one or another to embark on flights of fancy. Perfect late-night jazz.
Rock-a-Rolla (UK)
A completely different world then sounds to us from the CD “Yonkers” (rune grammofon). The two Norwegians André Roligheten (tenor saxophone) and Eyolf Dale (piano) - group name: Albatrosh - play an intimate chamber music for which we can think of absolutely no example. Cultivated articulation and the understanding of harmony in e-music dating back to the 1930s combine with the achievements of free collective improvisation in jazz. The self-composed themes are short and full of character, they can be remembered well in the melodic paraphrases. Accompanying and solo functions fluctuate until they can be distinguished. Humor still nests in the impressionist parts; the fullness of life never disappears in the flashing passages. Fairytale enchanted tones in the high registers of the saxophone,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (DE)
The jazz scene in Norway is bubbling. The two 26-year-old Dale and Roligheten already have three joint publications, the first two with an impressive response in the Nordic press. This third record, recorded at the Octave Studios in Yonkers, a suburb of NYC, is the result of - in her own words - "magic late night session". The two, who already know each other from early school years, obviously know exactly in which direction they want to go musically together. This is expressed in an improvisational familiarity and in a certainty of expression that some musicians who are twice as old are probably still waiting for. One or the other of the eight pieces indulges dangerously close to the romantic scrum, but overall, the late three-quarters of an hour is a seductive abduction into a soulful and expressive world. 4/5.
Jazz`n`More (DE)
A new duo from Norway is Albatrosh. Saxophonist Eyolf Dale and pianist André Roligheten also work "Yonkers" from the experience of alternative rock back to the no man's land between cool and free jazz. Your dialogues may be no matter how distorted, they never lose touch with this world. Albatrosh are out at the same time and yet in every moment.
JAZZthing (DE)
Two young Norwegians, the pianist Eyolf Dale and the saxophonist André Roligheten, have cultivated this form of musical interaction since they were 16 years old. At the age of 26 they recently recorded their third album Albatrosh "Yonkers" in a studio in Yonkers north of New York. You can feel her academic music education in the very structured pieces, whose varied improvisations appear a little calculated and standardized. Technically, they play at a high level like young people who want to appear grown up and have not completely forgotten the playfulness.
Jazzpodium (DE)
The two young Norwegians took up this challenge in New York to find solutions together in this difficult instrumentation. They succeeded famously. So, clarified and with the jazz story in the little finger, that must sound. There is no discussion of formal or technical problems, but rather a high level of communication. The balls fly back and forth between the musicians like in a frenzied table tennis game, are caught or even dropped. The only important thing is victory, to say the success of this high-risk game. These two musicians will probably be heard in other formations in the next few years. The opener alone makes you want more.
Freestyle (AT)
En høyeksplosiv blanding av avansert instrumentbeherskelse og ustoppelig improvisasjonslyst ... i all sin intrikate melodiske, rapsodisk-rytmiske og Klanglige velde er musikken på "Yonkers" en formidabel oppvisning i sømløst samspill på begge sogen avikkellk / mellitom abstrakjikk mellogmellkom mellitk. Om Håkon Kornstad / Håvard Wiik has satt standarden for saksofon / piano-duetter i norsk jazz, sier noe meg at Roligheten / Dale er i ferd med å puffe den et hakk videre med dette albumet som mildt says he oppsiktsvekkende, både kompositorisk, improvisatorisk instrumental. 6/6.
Dagbladet (NO)
To sjeler og ein tanke he an oppbrukt metafor, men det er sjeldan å høyre slik nydeleg musikalsk samverknad mellom to musikarar som aldri går i vegen for kvarandre, men som er så skapande saman, vekslande i Temperatur og uttrykk gjanhen somande å pearl wheel. Please click here, folkens.
Dagsavisen (NO)
A fascinating blanding of frie improvisasjoner og vakre melodilinjer Sjangermessig ligger duoen i grenseland mellom modernistisk jazz og samtidsmusikk, men de er heller ikke redd for å spille stride melody. Roligheten og Dale has a combination of tenårene, og de passer hverandre som hånd i hanske. He nests noe telepatisk over samspillet deres. Sjelden has any sound and piano and sound and fin vev. 5/6.
Address notices (NO)
Albatrosh har dybde i det de gjør. The self-composed material spiller temaer og tilnærming fra flere jazzepoker, men Fremdtrer med egenart og lavmælt dynamisk snert. Style contrasts står ikke mot hverandre. The inngår allianser som bærer Albatrosh´ særpreg. The melodiøse linjene bukter seg smidig på fritt underlag og skinner silence. 5/6.
Aftenposten (NO)
The vital combination of melodisk teft, improvisatorisk modighet, teknisk Kontroll og en dose råskap gjør at Albatrosh er en duo som fortsetter å imponere og gjøre seg gjeldende i et allerede breddfullt segment av jazzen. 5/6.
Bergens Tidende (NO)
De he begge mestere på hvert sitt instrument. Pianist Dale med sin glimrende venstrehåndstekikk og saksofonist André Roligheten med sin poetiske og sødmefylte sounded. Hver for seg he de store, together he de enda større: "Yonkers" he en eneste stor briljering i samspill. That is a great meg with the cd-ens gode komposisjoner. All mest liker jed de som bygger seg på korte melodiske temaer og he creative interior for dette. Dette er musikk som avslører flere dimensjoner hver gang man lytter til den. Rett og slett mesterlig gjort. 5/6.
Telemarksavisa (NO)
http://www.tidningenkulturen.se (swedish)
http://www.nordische-musik.de (german)
http://www.ragazzi-music.de (german)
http://jazzonblog.blogspot.com (german)
http://www.writteninmusic.com (dutch)
http://www.telegraaf.nl (dutch)