Christian Meeas Svendsen - New Rituals [Nakama Records 016]

Put on the circuit via Norway's Nakama Records on May 24th, 2k19 as a 3xCD set plus additional booklet folder with extended liner notes is "New Rituals", the new extended album piece created by Christian Meeas Svendsen in collaboration with his band Nakama and a zen buddhist choir based in the Rinzai Zen Center Oslo. With all three parts being based on the same source material and a highly conceptual compositional approach we see the ten zen buddhist sutras performed by Nakama and the buddhist choir on the first CD1, creating hypnotic hypertension from the very first notes of the opener "Lotus Sutra" onwards, a piece in which intense chants and a crescendo of FreeJazz-resembling conceptual compositions fall together without allowing the listener one second to breathe - let alone over the course of the whole first CD's total runtime of 37 minutes. Part two sees Nakama performing the specific patterns assigned to each part of the chants solely instrumental and without vocal company which clarifies the compositional approach by far and, even though no specific time signature is assigned to the groups performance, allows for a certain rhythmic structure to come through in this slightly reduced and more restrained take on the subject which surely will be appreciated by both followers of Jazz (Noir) and Contemporaty Classical as well before Christian Meaas Svendsen's interpretation of the topic fully focuses on a (Neo)Classical vision, mainly on minimal bass playing providing enough room for silence and contemplation within the given parameters of his predetermined compositional interpretations of the buddhist sutras. A well demanding album for followers of highly conceptual music, this.

CD artwork on Instagram!