Øystein Sevåg - Caravan

On Caravan, Sevåg’s further develops the collaboration with violinist Maria Eisenburger (Bridge), and expands the classical palette with other outstanding German chamber musicians. The second element of this album is a studio session in Oslo with Sevåg’s Norwegian jazz colleagues Hofseth, Aarset, Erlien, and Vinaccia. The contrasts on the album are further heightened by contributions from vocalist Elin Synnøve Braathen and guitarist Lakki Patey.

Words
Shaken by the Iraq War in 2003, Sevåg wrote lyrics for his music for the first time. He found three lines to be sufficient. These are sung by the Norwegian vocalist Elin Synnøve Bråthen on Caravan‘s penultimate composition, Seen from Above.

Musical Architecture
The final track on Caravan, The Code, is a contrapuntal work constructed almost entirely from thematic elements taken from the other tracks on the album. Melodic fragments from all the compositions are played forwards, backwards (retrograde), or upside down (inversion), sometimes individually, but often several at once. While it is not necessarily easy to recognize the themes from the original compositions in the new context, Sevåg’s idea is that this musical tapestry helps create a sense of unity and coherence of the whole work, even when it is not consciously perceived.