First, congratulations to Arild Andersen for his prestigious award on 26 September 2022 as Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olavs for his outstanding contribution to jazz music, by command of Harald V, King of Norway.

Throughout his career Andersen has always encouraged younger players, such as a young Nils Petter Molvær in Masquelero (1983-1990), his band with Bugge Wesseltoft, Eivind Aarset and Molvær on the albums Sagn (1990) and Arv (1993), through to his current world class all-star ensemble. Affirmation, the ensemble’s debut album, is almost entirely the product of spontaneous interaction, often inspired by Andersen, whose contra bass acts as the voice of reason – probing, pushing, suggesting tempo, key centre, and atmosphere. Group empathy is key, everybody is listening to each other and being open enough to let things happen, trusting the actions of those around them to contribute to the overall ambiance and texture as it evolves. Beginning with an almost programmatic mood – a subjective reading might imagine winter sun, crystalline icicles, the freshness of snowy landscapes – the direction of travel becomes deeper and is characterised by periods of interaction, coloristic elements from Lien, and moments of staccato response from Neset and majestic interventions by the leader. Their strong, individual voices are happy to surrender to the group endeavour and the delicate balance of give-and-take which characterises this music.

Jazzwise spoke to Arild Anderson:

What was behind you concept of approaching Affirmation from the perspective of spontaneous interaction?

I had four new songs [for this recording session], plus three from older days and we recorded most of it the first day. The second day we finished recording the written material, and remembering Manfred [Eicher] often said, “Why not go in and just improvise a bit?” I suggested that. With nothing planned, we recorded first part of about 23 minutes, and then we did a second one about 14 minutes.

While the early tracks have a programmatic feel – rising sun on an icy landscape might be one subjective response – there is a sense that as the collective improvisation develops, Marius and Helge’s potential as lead instrumentalists are not fully explored…

What is heard here on this record are the two sessions from the second day without any editing, and we added one tune, ‘Short Story’ from the first day. The idea of listening before you play is so present here and the way everybody comes up with ideas is the focus. I called the album Affirmation where you have to trust yourself and trust the others just as much. Helge and Marius chose their own way to contribute to the music. There were no limitations. I did not direct anyone to go into some special landscape or anything. This is their maturity towards a collective expression where you listen as much as you play.

The publicity notes refer to your new quartet, implying it is not a one-off all-star session, is it your intention to develop this group in the same way you have done with your ensembles in the past?

Actually, the quartet has been in existence since 2018 and will go on for a while. But even if this quartet has done quite a few concerts and played together a lot, we never really did a full set of just improvising.