Oscillations is the fourth album in just six years from Swedish quartet Sol Sol, and it’s the one where everything seems to click into a higher orbit. Formed in 2018 and already lauded for their blend of free improvisation and strong compositional identities, the group returns here in a subtly renewed configuration: drummer Nils Agnas steps in for original percussionist Anna Lund, joining his brother Mauritz Agnas on double bass alongside saxophonist Elin Forkelid and guitarist David Stackenäs. Recorded over two days in January 2025 and released on Forkelid’s own Sail Cabin Records as a 2xLP and CD, the album captures a band whose internal communication has sharpened into something both weightless and focused.
Critics have responded in kind. UK Vibe called Oscillations “a radiant triumph” and awarded it a rare 5/5, praising music that is “free at its edges, lyrical at its heart.” Paris‑Move likened the hour‑long set to “an hour of music in ascending weightlessness,” noting that this is a band “aiming for the stars.” All About Jazz declared it “not only Sol Sol’s best to date, it is also their most promising yet,” highlighting the quartet’s evolution from their already impressive earlier albums. Finland’s Valon kuvia heard “a strong band formed by strong musical personalities, which would undoubtedly be an experience to witness in concert,” while Record Collector emphasised the group’s “heightened sense of interactive awareness across ten absorbing tracks.” As Salt Peanuts put it succinctly: “Sol Sol oscillates with this album into higher, brighter territories, pushing its own boundaries.”
Musically, the record unfolds as a continuous arc framed by three collective improvisations: “Prelude,” “Open Letter To Lord Badminton” and “Postlude.” These pieces function like portals and hinge‑points, opening, dividing and gently closing the album with free‑form exchanges that showcase the quartet’s deep listening. In between sit seven composed pieces - five by Stackenäs, two by Forkelid - that explore a broad dynamic and emotional range while maintaining a distinct group identity. Titles like “Masnou,” “Oscillations For Hilma,” “All My Anxious Friends” and “The Seeming Casualty” hint at the mixture of playfulness and gravity inside: this is music willing to be knotty and intense, but also open to lyricism, humour and moments of almost song‑like clarity.
Forkelid, described by The Arts Desk as one of the leading jazz saxophone voices in Scandinavia, moves across tenor, alto, soprano and baritone, using the different horns less as separate personas than as facets of a single, highly articulate voice. Her lines can be razor‑sharp or grainy and vocalised, agile in fast, interval‑leaping runs yet unafraid of long, slowly bending notes that seem to hold an entire phrase’s weight. Stackenäs’ guitar functions as both foil and co‑pilot: he can sketch out luminous, open chords, pick angular counter‑melodies or dive into textural playing that borders on prepared‑guitar sound art, always with an ear for how his choices reframe Forkelid’s improvisations.
The Agnas brothers provide a rhythm section that is anything but background. Mauritz’s double bass grounds the music with a big, woody tone and agile sense of time, moving easily from anchored pulses to singing upper‑register figures and frictional bow work. Nils, on his first recording with Sol Sol, proves a quietly transformative presence: his drumming is light on its feet yet decisive, just as comfortable in open, colouristic playing as in finely detailed, groove‑adjacent patterns that give the music a sense of forward momentum without locking it into rigid meters. Together they give the quartet a rhythmic field that can stretch and contract, allowing pieces to “oscillate” between density and sparseness, inside‑playing and free‑time exploration.
From the shimmering opening seconds of “Prelude” to the lingering resonance of “Postlude,” Oscillations feels less like a mere collection of tunes and more like a single, carefully shaped journey. Themes recur in altered guises; textures ripple forward from one track to the next; the overall emotional trajectory moves from tentative emergence through turbulence and back to a kind of open, luminous calm. Mixed by Niclas Lindström and mastered by Claes “Classe” Persson, the recording preserves both clarity and grain: you can track every interaction, yet the sound never becomes clinical, retaining the warmth and air of four musicians sharing a room.
In a Scandinavian scene rich with strong saxophone‑led ensembles, Oscillations stands out as a statement of intent. It confirms Sol Sol as one of the most vital small groups operating in European free jazz today - a band of equals whose music, to borrow UK Vibe’s phrase, breathes and expands like a living organism. Hearing them on record is absorbing; catching this level of interactive awareness on stage, as multiple reviewers have suggested, would likely be something else again.
