While The Night Falls
David Härenstam (guitar)
Minna Weurlander (accordion)
rec. 2023-2024, Levin Studios, Stockholm
Levin Studios LS2401 [48]

It’s almost twenty years since I first reviewed a CD with David Härenstam, and since then there have been a number of new productions with various constellations, most recently a duo disc with jazz pianist Peter Knudsen (review). On the present album, he has associated himself with accordionist Minna Weurlander in a programme that gradually takes us from the hard-hitting and ruthless reality of the present times towards nightfall and peace. The opening is an explosive orgy of rhythm, in which the guitar is primarily employed as a percussion instrument. So violent is the hard rock treatment that Härenstam had to change his valuable and specially designed Jim Redgate guitar for a less brittle instrument to avoid irreparable damage. Wolfgang Bartsch’s Spiel der Kräfte (Play of Powers) certainly lives up to its title! This makes an electrifying start. It is far from traditional chamber music, but maybe we will have to re-define the terminology. Vicente Bögeholz’s Puyuyui with its Latin-American twist is no doubt more traditional. Bögelholz is himself a guitarist and he composed the work in cooperation with bandoneon virtuoso Juanjo Mosalini. The strange title emanates from a tour the two made in Mexico, where their attempt to pronounce the name of the town they were in was laughed down by the audience. Minna Weurlander’s Nightfall & Noric also has folk-music roots and is in two parts. The beginning is slightly mysterious when darkness begins to fall; the second part is a very fast and exciting dance. Noric is Romanian, meaning “good health”.

The tango has two important footholds in the world: Argentina and Finland, strangely enough. Minna Weurlander was born and grew up in Finland and the tango influenced section here begins with her compatriot Kristina Kuusisto’s Astorita and then continues with the King of the modern tango, Astor Piazzolla. The Kuusisto piece is rhythmically intense and life-enhancing, while it becomes more and more clear that Piazzolla is one of the most influential composers of the last half-century. Gone are the days when tango belonged in the filthy bordello milieu. Today it has moved into the concert halls to stay there permanently. 

Another pioneer who has become an icon is Philip Glass and his once scoffed at minimalism, which also has entered the noble auditoriums. Mad Rush was originally an organ piece, commissioned for the Dalai Lama’s first public speech in North America, when it was unclear when he was to arrive and so needed to be capable of unlimited prolongation. Its two contrasting themes, one peaceful, the other full of life, are very attractive in Härenstam’s arrangement for guitar and accordion. His twenty etudes for piano are possibly his most frequently performed works; No 16 is a suitably mysterious piece to evoke the approaching night. Swedish composer Stefan Klaverdal and David Härenstam have worked together before and here they have come up with a real winner: the three-movement miniature suite The Slumbering Green. Uninvaded Sleep is hypnotically beautiful, with the guitar in the foreground and the accordion backing up with magical chords, followed by the meditative Into the Sickly Light. The finale, Faintest Sunlights Flee, begins with nervously febrile activity at a rousing tempo, but after a while it increasingly slows down and at last ends in the middle of a phrase; the protagonist has fallen asleep. It’s midnight and what is more natural than listening to Thelonious Monk’s classic ‘Round Midnight in David Härenstam’s arrangement? It makes a wonderful terminal point, but there is also room for an epilogue, Pat Metheny’s Last Train Home, where the drowsy sounds of the wheels in the end disappear in the distance. The journey is accomplished, and it has been a pleasure from beginning to end. 

I can understand that some readers will raise an eyebrow when browsing through the contents list, but after reading this review I hope that they have understood that this is highly approachable music, full bloodedly performed by two excellent musicians. 

Göran Forsling

Availability: Levin Studios

Contents:
Wolfgang Bartsch (b. 1962) 
Spiel der Kräfte
Vicente Bögelholz (b. 1963)
Puyuyui
Minna Weurlander (b. 1973)
Nightfall & Noric
Kristina Kuusisto (?)/Roger Eon (?)
Astorita
Astor Piazzolla (1921 – 1992)
Gulinay
Psicosis
Philip Glass (b. 1937) (arr David Härenstam) 
Mad Rush
Etude No 16
Stefan Klaverdal (b. 1975)
The Slumbering Green:
I. Uninvaded Sleep
II. Into the Sickly Light
III. Faintest Sunlights Flee
Thelonious Monk (1917 – 1982) (arr David Härenstam)
‘Round Midnight
Pat Metheny (b. 1954)
Last Train Home