Marius Neset and Leif Ove Andsnes releases the second single from their upcoming album, Chaconne part 3, out now!

LYTT HER

Marius Neset explains: 

“Chaconne is a duet for piano and tenor saxophone, composed in the fall of 2023. The piece is divided into three small movements, and the entire piece takes the form of a long crescendo that becomes increasingly intense, culminating in a climax at the end. 

 The piece started as an idea in 33/11 time but eventually took a different direction. In the first movement, the piano plays, starting searchingly and fluidly, before eventually transitioning into a waltz (Part 2). Here, the saxophone enters as well, also as a searching voice, gradually finding the melodic line. The second movement leads into Part 3, which is the grooviest section. This piece is 100% notated for both instruments, except for a few bars towards the end where the saxophone includes some improvisation. 

 However, at times it can still sound improvised, which also makes it difficult to place in a genre. This is not important in this context; for me, it was more important to start from Leif Ove's and my own expression and from there try to write music that tells a story. This also provides freedom for both of us, where we can be 100% ourselves, while the music feels new and different from the genres and traditions we often find ourselves in.”

These two musicians, with backgrounds from different genres, usually focus on different stylistic models in their expressive idioms. For example, like most of his classical colleagues and unlike jazz performers, Andsnes does not improvise. But despite this difference and others, the album Who We Are strongly suggests that the similarities in the two players’ musical perceptions and approaches are more prevalent and significant than the differences, and that they are pursuing many of the same objectives in their musical narratives.

            In their encounter here, in Neset’s compositions, their playing is imbued with a tangibly inspired, hyper-communicative, fertile sense of community. Playfully, but with total, controlled ownership of both the stillness and the storm, they create music that sounds entirely organic and original, and which in the course of the album’s running time makes words and concepts such as “genres”, “genre blends”, and “fusion” seem oddly irrelevant.

The album is recorded in Rainbow Studios December 2023, with Jørn Pedersen as producer and Martin Abrahamsen as studio technichan. The album will be released on Simax on September 20th 2024, on Vinyl, CD, Digitally and Dolby Atmos.