Here's a proven technique known to kindergarten teachers the world over: When a class threatens to spin out of control, place yourself in the eye of the hurricane and start speaking inaudibly.
More often than not, the ringleaders will hush in order to catch your words. This is an involuntary human response, or so I'm told.
Sakuteiki, the first solo project from Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, works in a similar fashion. Through his use of silence and by picking each note with great care, Henriksen quietly demands your full attention.
I can't read when this music is playing.
Sakuteiki was inspired by an 11th century treatise on garden design, the guiding principle of which is each thing in its proper place. The album was recorded in two churches, a converted mausoleum and a loft studio chosen for their reverberant acoustics.
As often as not, Henriksen's tone resembles that of a Japanese shakuhachi, Armenian duduk or Nordic ram's horn, but sometimes his trumpet sounds like a trumpet. His influences appear to include Miles Davis, Jon Hassell, Don Cherry and the Deep Listening Band.
Although many of the pieces on Sakuteiki are solo performances, church-organ and harmonium drones are used sparingly and effectively, as are the percussive parts added by engineer Helge Sten, like Henriksen a member of the band Supersilent.
Arve Henriksen
