A first glimpse of spring from Spring Flood: Mariam Wallentin & West Norwegian Jazz Ensemble release “Basel”

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“Basel” takes its point of departure from Wallentin’s stay in the Swiss city in spring 2023, where the Rhine became a constant presence, both as sound and as inspiration. Through open windows, the sounds of the city, and the slow awakening of spring, a stream of notes, moods, and reflections began to emerge, later forming the basis of the music.

Wallentin describes the origin like this:

“The open window, the orange tiled roof, the sounds outside knocking, gurgling and rushing. You can see it on the album cover. Waking from winter hibernation, lying in the shade and gazing into the pale spring light and the blue sky, both wanting to go out there and to stay in bed just a little longer. The overwhelming in the small, before you grow accustomed to change, to the new.

But in the music, Basel is flowing from the very beginning, an ensemble that caresses, entices, and urges you forward. Put on your sneakers, step out onto the pavement, walk along the quay and watch the water shimmer! We do it together.

And the thoughts flow with the river and everything that grows with the arrival of spring - buds bursting, the melancholy in it, but also the tingling anticipation, the intensification, clouds parting and something new taking over.”

Just two weeks after her stay, Wallentin brought these fragments to Bergen and the West Norwegian Jazz Ensemble. What was initially intended as rehearsals quickly evolved into an intensive studio session at Duper Studio. Over the course of just two days, notes, chordal textures, and poetic fragments were shaped into a collective work through openness, listening, and intuitive interplay.

“Basel” offers a first insight into Spring Flood - an album that moves between the tender and the insistent, the airy and the electrified. The music can whisper like grass or surge like a spring flood, revolving around the sense of longing and movement that spring awakens within us.

The West Norwegian Jazz Ensemble, known for its flexible line-ups and close collaborations with selected composers, meets Wallentin’s distinctive voice and compositional universe in a dynamic and sensory collaboration. The result is a rich soundscape: harp textures shimmer like flowing water, percussion reflects the rhythms of nature, and a core rhythm section drives the music forward with both weight and lightness.

Spring Flood explores movement - in nature, in the body, and in relationships - opening spaces for both reflection and presence

Mariam Wallentin is a versatile artist, musician, and composer with roots in improvisation, avant-garde, contemporary music, and alternative pop. She is known from Wildbirds & Peacedrums and Fire! Orchestra, and also leads the solo project Mariam The Believer. Wallentin has toured internationally for nearly 20 years and collaborated with artists such as St. Vincent, Lykke Li, and Feist. She is an award-winning artist with a distinctive voice and an uncompromising artistic vision.

Vestnorsk Jazzensemble (The West Norwegian Jazz Ensemble) is a project-based ensemble that brings together freelance musicians from Western Norway in ever-changing line-ups. Kjetil Møster currently serves as artistic director. Through collaborations with selected composers and artists, the ensemble creates new, original works rooted in jazz, yet often crossing genres in both form and expression. The projects are documented through recordings and releases — such as Per Zanussi’s Li and the Infinite Game (Clean Feed Records, 2022) and an upcoming release with Mira Thiruchelvam later this year.