Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It shows a band that were confident enough to really experiment. , October 13, 2008
Leucocytes are white corpuscles, the immune-system blood cells that undergo regular renewal to remain capable of working. So too, declared Swedish pianist Esbjorn Svensson, must his trio through jamming.
Tragically, Svensson's shocking death in a scuba-diving accident this summer has silenced his big-selling group. His final legacy is this typically Scandinavian panorama, brooding soundscapes with mild electronica and unabashed repetition, redeemed by Svensson's dreamlike and uniquely sensitive keyboard touch.
When Esbjorn Svensson died , the popular Swedish jazz trio e.s.t. (Esbjorn Svensson and remaining members, bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Ostrom) had perhaps already reached their peak.
But this last studio set, completed prior to Svensson's death proves that the group still had plenty left to say, and were beginning to find a new, more experimental way to say it.
The material, worked up from jam sessions, is both jazzier and rockier than before, and more consciously electro-acoustic in approach, with the opening tracks - contrapuntal piano solo leading into dark and funky groove - as good as anything they've done.
"The Leucocyte suite" (the word refers to white blood cells that fight infection) which follows - and which appears to include one minute of silence - is less perfectly realised, but it's clear that e.s.t. were far from finished.
"Leucocyte, EST's final album, is another leap forward for the trio. Whereas their releases up until this point relied on tightly composed melodies and structures, "Leucocyte" is a bold, fully improvised set, recorded in just two days in a studio in Australia. It is a hint of how EST were pushing themselves into further, more exploratory territories".- Jamie Cullum
Svensson's unique trio - who had been playing together since 1992, until his untimely death this year - show how to conjure up a masterpiece from thin air on the impulse of the moment. Profound and intense, they had reached a level of interaction most bands can only dream of.
"Leucocyte is far from a perfect album, and that's why it's so heartbreakingly good. It's unsure in parts, and occasionally too wilfully rough. But it's a pointer to a future that's been cruelly denied us. We can only dream of what might have happened next. But thank goodness we have this to remember Svensson by. It's a testament to an artist whose life was always a work in progress".-Chris Jones
Svensson's loss goes deep.
They will be greatly missed.
Album Highlight: "Premonition".
Tuesday Wonderland
Viaticum
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Aural attack, October 10, 2008
To all current EST fans - if news of Svensson's death wasn't hard enough to take, the music on this album is what you might call "tough love".
To any of you just curious about EST, this is probably not the album to start your collection as, on the whole, it is neither typical nor representative.
Why? Well, EST's usual melodic acoustic lyricism is on some tracks embellished, on others supplanted & on yet others overwhelmed by electronic effects (occasionally quite distorted). These effects are particularly to the fore on two lengthy tracks one of which "Premonition - Earth" (17min & which also features a relentless brutal back beat for the last 5mins) works amazingly well while the other "Leucocyte - Ad Mortem" (13min) sees the effects take over & grate a little too much for the first half of the piece only to give way to a slightly unsettling "calm" over the second half.
Yet it all begins innocently enough with "Decade", but at only 1min 17" we're quickly thrown into the maelstrom of the rest of the album. This said, the next track "Premonition-Earth" is, if you can stick with it, one of the most amazing pieces of music you'll ever hear. Starting with a pulsing Berglund bass riff (which continues virtually right throughout) joined at increasingly frequent intervals by Svensson's spare prepared piano which gradually takes over the first half of the piece itself, you'll find your whole pysche being infiltrated and captured! Svensson's playing is masterful, as ever, and then, about 6min in you almost suddenly become aware of the percussion. As the piano & drums become more strident the intensity rises & the electronic effects (which never overwhelm this piece) become less noticeable until around 12mins Ostrom starts this rapid-fire drum beat which literally "attacks" your ears & if THAT's not enough to make you think about heading for the skip button, the electronic effects become more noticeable too. But, oh my gosh, what a sensory experience if you can last the distance!
The follow-up track "Premonition - Contorted" is not as angular as the title suggests & is a beautiful, haunting re-vision of the previous piece with subtle electronic effects embellishing deep bass grooves & more spare piano. Indeed it is fair to say that these two companion pieces are the cornerstone(s) of the album for the rest of the tracks, whilst still good, don't quite come up to such a high standard.
"Jazz", after a fierce electronic opening, is a reasonable, up tempo, almost "standard fare" piano jazz trio piece with the bass & drums pushed to the background. "Still" is a slow, moody piece which is virtually all ambient electro effects.
The title suite begins with "Ab Initio" which features initially a rapid bass "attack" & then piano, bass & voice ALL distorted quickly followed by crashing drums & cymbals. The distortion is unerring & brutal & runs for all but the last 30 seconds of this 9 min track! Therefore, alas, it is neither easy listening nor one of my favourites.
"Ab Interim" is basically 1min of near-perfect silence & whilst I have largely described "Ad Mortem" already above if you DO make it into the second half be prepared for a gorgeous last 2 mins where the piece is largely taken over by a wonderful chime-like effect on the piano which carries on into the closer "Ad Infinitum".
Overall, an EST experience like never before (yet still distinctly EST). This disc is, in the main, haunting, moody, disturbing & muscular &, as stated at the outset, perhaps too effects-dominated for some. This said, I think that most of the disc (& the two "Premonition" pieces especially) is well worth your money & your listening effort.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Feels like the music was dissolved and reconstituted, February 25, 2009
I find that reviewing the music of E.S.T. makes me want to unleash superlatives--the "-est" adjective forms, fittingly--and not all of them positive by any means. "Leucocyte" caps off a grand run of recordings by this trio, but I wish there were more to come.
This CD is a hard one to embrace even while admiring the skill required to pull off this live in studio recording. The late Esbjörn Svensson show his mastery of grand piano and his fascination with electronics; Dan Berglund spends a great deal of the recording coaxing sounds from his double bass that remind me some of the music from Kubrick's film version of 2001 A Space Odyssey; interestingly, I think Magnus Öström is the standout on this recording as at times his drums and percussion are the only thing keeping it grounded, though the extensive set of staccato drumming in parts of Premonition would not invite repeated listening.
The music picks up on some of the more experimental and expressionist directions from earlier E.S.T. recordings and ramps up those elements, pushing harmony and structure to the background. The whole effect feels like the music was dissolved and reconstituted in some form that has the features of music, but not necessarily arranged in the manner to which we are accustomed. I've heard the term soundscapes associated with these "songs" but maybe that is too passive a depiction. I'd opt for soundquakes.
I can appreciate what E.S.T. has accomplished with "Leucocyte" but I will never quite warm up to these free improvisations but I will always have this nagging sense of wondering what might have been next had Mr. Svensson not died.
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~ Esbjorn Svensson Trio
~ Esbjorn Svensson Trio
~ Esbjorn Trio Svensson
~ Bobo Stenson Trio
~ E.S.T.
by Esbjörn Svensson Trio 
