Vossabrygg is Terje Rypdal's tribute to the electric Miles Davis of Bitches Brew, written on commission for the Vossa Jazz festival and recorded live there on 12 April 2003. It brings the Norwegian guitarist back to a loose, groove-based jazz setting, with sampled electronics and two drummers alongside long-time companions.
The octet joins Rypdal with trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, composer of Davis's late album Aura, and drummer Jon Christensen, both long-time partners. Paolo Vinaccia is the second drummer. Rypdal's son Marius Rypdal handles electronics, samples and turntables, and two keyboard players and a bassist complete the line-up. Per Ravnaas engineered the concert, and Rypdal edited and mixed it with Jan Erik Kongshaug at Rainbow Studio in Oslo, with Manfred Eicher as executive producer.
The eighteen-minute Ghostdancing opens the set with a quote from Joe Zawinul's Pharaoh's Dance, then builds over organ, bass and the two drummers into the record's longest statement. Marius sampled choir and string passages from his father's Ineo and Fifth Symphony and co-wrote three shorter tracks, among them Hidden Chapter and Incognito Traveller, which link the longer pieces. On You're Making It Personal Rypdal's guitar finally cuts loose over a heavy bass and drum groove, with Mikkelborg's trumpet slicing above it. The short A Quiet Word closes the concert in a dense, dreamlike haze. Mikkelborg avoids copying Davis, building his lines from echo and electronic treatment, and his trumpet is often the central voice.
For John Fordham in The Guardian, Rypdal's and Mikkelborg's phrasing make "guitar and horn almost inseparable". David Fricke in Rolling Stone called it "a hypnotic fusion concerto". He also found it "determinedly modern in its dark magic and angel song." Daniel Spicer in PopMatters heard That's More Like It as a funky, bass-led workout close to Davis's Big Fun sessions. Not every critic was won over. In The Irish Times in 2006, Ray Comiskey found it accessible and well played but short of a visceral edge.
This is the CD edition of ECM 1984, first released in February 2006, with all ten pieces written by Terje Rypdal, three of them together with Marius. The album is dedicated to Pål Gjersum.
