Nils Wogram Nostalgia – Nature
Nils Wogram, the German trombonist with the many hats, offers a new chapter with his Nostalgia project. Together with Arno Krijger on Hammond Organ and Bass Pedals, and Dejan Terzic on Drums and Glockenspiel, his “Nature” album is accompanied by a short story from Tobias Premper, a writer from Berlin. Krijger is new to this group who now has four albums to date.
The story is about a man who flees out of the big city where “night rules eternally” into the countryside. And the music is all based on and inspired by nature. There is a lot of joy in the final, swinging piece “Dipper” with organ and trombone blending incredibly well together and including efficient, intricately layered bop phrases with swinging solos by both Wogram and Krijger. Elsewhere, like in “Birds”, I was wondering if those birds had accidentally eaten the wrong food. Or were poisoned.
But most of the tracks here tell stories of nature and what it does to the human being. “Solitude”, the eight minute opener, doesn’t belong in the melancholy or loneliness category, but rather explores nature as a trombone soliloquy. “Hofstetten”, a community in the Black Forest (they have pretty good Riesling there by the way), is a quirky place described by cascading organ romps.
I especially liked the prettiness of pieces like “The Trail” which meanders into the great wide open or “Uncultivated Land” with its spaciousness leaving lots of free room. Other tracks like “As Wave Follows Wave” sound unbalanced, as if three people are talking at the same time in an uneven colloquy. “Village For Sale” is a great composition with just about the right dose of tension and “Sanctuary” comes across as a longing, sanguine plea.
Nils Wogram is celebrating the release of his new album at Berlin’s XJAZZ Festival this Saturday at Privatclub at 8pm.
