A Wind Invisible Sweeps Us Through The World

Het trio rond pianist Rembrandt Frerichs heeft zich bekwaamd In een muziekstijl die ls losgezongen van tijd en plaats. De muzikanten absorbeerden ritmes en klanken uit de vele streken die ze bezochten. Met onder meer Perzische invloeden verrijken ze hun composites en Improvisaties. In de afgelopen twee jaar zochten en vonden Rembrandt Frerichs, bassist Tony Overwater en drummer-percussionist Vinsent Planjer hun inspiratie dichter bij huis. Ze namen hun nieuwe album op in het Amsterdamse Orgelpark. In dit voormalige kerkgebouw bevindt zich een interessante collectie oude en nieuwe orgels. Frerichs, afkomstig uit een geslacht van kerkorganisten, voegt aan het trio-geluid gedragen orgelklanken toe. Dat begint al In het openingsstuk waarvan de titel 'A Wind Invisible Sweeps Us Through The World' verwijst naar een gedicht van de dertiende-eeuwse Perzische dichter Rumi. 'Bleib Bel Uns' Is een mooie Improvisatie over het gelijknamige koraal uit de zesde cantate van J.S. Bach. Het Rembrandt Trio krijgt vleugels en blijft toch geworteld.

Recorded by Channel Classics and Native DSD founder Jared Sacks for his Just Listen Records, this set by pianist and composer Rembrandt Frerichs follows the label's pattern of capturing live performances as simply as possible, with no edits or overdubs.

Here the trio of more than 15 years – bassist Tony Overwater and Vinsent Planjer on drums and percussion – is recorded straight to DXD with a minimal mic set-up in Amsterdam's Orgelpark. The result is a 'live' ambience with a real sense of the musicians being in the room.

The trio's musical experiences on the road, from Bach to China and Armenia, are woven into beautifully innovative and involving pieces. The recording gives the players space to perform, and the instruments the ability to breathe and interact with the acoustic – it all sounds pretty glorious.

You really have to sit down for this album. Turn up the volume until it’s just right and then… Your room becomes a stage in a beautiful church filled with great musicians.

The audiophile music label Just Listen Records has recorded an album with the Rembrandt Trio in Het Orgelpark in Amsterdam. This former church is famous for its acoustics and organ collection. These beautiful acoustics come with the fairy tale title “A Wind Invisible Sweeps Us Through the World”.  For the Rembrandt Trio, the corona period is, as for many, a time of contemplation and reflection.

A time to take stock of many years on tour, many musical adventures and impressions. It has resulted in an album filled with little gems sculpted with the music that is dear to the musicians, be it a Chinese folk tune, a Bach chorale or another melody picked up during the many tours.
The musical language that the trio has developed is introspective and well thought out, but with room for improvisation. Rembrandt Frerichs was responsible for the majority of the compositions, but in the execution the three musicians are completely equal.
The trio breaks the line between Classical, Jazz and Improvised music. They do this in their own unique way. They are never just classic melodies with a jazz sauce, their musical baggage is too broad for that with their thorough knowledge of music from the Arab and Indo-Chinese countries.
The organs, present in the Orgelpark, which has been converted into a recording studio, also play a role. In the wonderful song “Fay Maria”, which Frerichs wrote for his daughter, the organ intro gives the composition a unique, serene atmosphere.

Vinsent Spanjer’s percussion work comes into the room very nicely due to the recording quality. The cymbals, the bells, but also the vibrating drum heads; you sit in the front row as Vinsent plays his Whisper Kit. You will also hear Tony Overwater in full regalia. His playing on the strings of the violone in “Leaves of Green” is extremely beautiful and poetic.

This album comes with a booklet with a short explanation and beautiful photos for each song. It gives this release just that little bit more cachet.

The music doesn’t get any better, it’s fantastic in itself, but the combination makes it complete.

The Dutch Rembrandt Trio – pianist Rembrandt Frerichs, double bass player Tony Overwater and drummer-percussionist Vinsent Planjer, like many other musicians, found itself grounded when the world came to a standstill in 2020. After seven albums and fifteen years of touring the world together, the trio was now forced to stay put, stop performing, traveling and collaborating. This time of reflection led the trio to record an album of songs that brought into play their collective memories; memories that incorporated motifs, themes and experiences from distinct musical cultures into their work and collaborations with Persian grandmasters Hossein Alizadeh and Kayhan Kalhor. A shared imagination in which they transcend boundaries – eras and places – and still travel the world.

The trio secluded itself in February 2021 in Orgelpark, a former church in Amsterdam, filled with antique organs with beautiful acoustics and unique reverberations, and recorded A Wind Invisible Sweeps us Through the World, titled after from a poem by the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi. The 15 pieces rely on strong melodies that guide the conversational dynamics of the trio, and all draw on the extensive communal experience of the trio. These performance-tested pieces are based on universal themes from different times and cultures; a Bach motif, a Chinese folk song, or a whiff of Armenian folklore.

The Rembrandt Trio succeeded to create a set of timeless pieces that adapt the open, improvising dynamics of a jazz trio in which all its musicians are well-versed in classical and contemporary music, and enjoy experimenting with the sounds and instruments of early music and the Middle East.

The title piece and Fight Song sounds as if inspired by the instant folk melodies of G.I. Gurdjieff. Other pieces have more direct references like the Bach-tinged Bleib Bei Uns, Johann Sebastian that invites the old master to improvise with the trio. Leaves of Green highlights the affinity of the trio to Middle-Eastern scales. The Moon Shines Bright When It Doesn’t Avoid The Night, titled after another poem by Rumi, and the last piece Grace are touching gentle Jazz ballads that cement the almost telepathic interplay of the trio.

For their fourth album, the Rembrandt Frerichs Trio landed in the Amsterdam Orgelpark and that is audible. First of all to the fabulous sound quality, the recordings in the former church sound balanced and intimate. Secondly, to the sporadic addition of the organ in different pieces. That could have been a bit more or a bit more exuberant perhaps.

The pieces have the high quality you would expect from star players Rembrandt Frerichs (piano), Tony Overwater (bass) and Vinsent Planjer (percussion). As a trio they share a love for classical and jazz mixed with oriental music.

The low, contemplative pace lends itself to meditative dreaming away. Yet the sound carpets are always rolled up again and again when they are just starting to get used to it, after which a new song starts with almost the same elements at the same tempo. Beautiful, but the album lacks some surprise in the fourteen pieces.

Another strong outing by the Rembrandt Trio brings us once again into the fascinating cross-cultural musical explorations for which I so much value in their recordings. While grounded in their European musical tradition this group explores the world with open eyes and curiosity to learn from non-western musical traditions, thereby expanding their horizons.

What comes from these recording sessions are compositions that feel timeless, have a universal quality about them, and connect across cultures. Often, the pieces were based on themes from different times and cultures; a Bach motif, a Chinese folk song, a whiff of Armenian folklore. Beautiful, strong melodies that connect.

In the opening track, Rembrandt Frerichs initiates a rumination on the theme of this poem on organ; Tony Overwater picks up on double bass; Vinsent Planjer joins with gentle percussion; and the group is off on their exploration of this world by Rumi. This piece sets the tone for what we can expect throughout this album—hints of melodies right at the edge of our grasp, transformed by flavors at once exotic but ever so human. All performed with superbly musical craftsmanship and accord.

Orgelpark gave the Trio a perfect venue for this reflective self-exploration, self-discovery, as they assembled this album. This former church, now a haven for organists because of its large collection of historical organs, has very specific and beautiful acoustics. Rembrandt, a descendant of two generations of church organists, found himself drawn to trying out the sounds of the box organ and the Sauer organ incorporated into several of the pieces. The space itself, with its specific reverberations became another player in this band of three.

Master recording engineer Jared Sacks performs once again his magic in capturing all of this in as acoustically natural a manner as one might wish. True to his philosophy in establishing Just Listen Records as his jazz performance label, he sets the musicians up in this space as if they were making a live performance. Not separated by sound booths, no headphones listening to a mike feed, both he and the Trio agreed this recording would be a special acoustical experience as close to a live performance as they could make it.

This is consummate Jazz seasoned by years of traveling, performing and absorbing from cultures in all parts of the world.

The listener is quickly captured by the intimacy that emerges from this particular musical universe which never allows itself to be excessive and boastful. High class.