Vilhelm Bromander

Vilhelm Bromander returns to Warm Winters Ltd. with his second album written for an extended woodwind ensemble. For those uninitiated, 2022's 'Aurora' was a collection of pieces Bromander wrote for an ensemble of friends, most of whom were playing on instruments unfamiliar to them.

'Aurora II' builds on the last album, but the ensemble of friends grew, and so did the sound, which has evolved into a deeper, more expansive one. Each of the compositions has it’s own attunement space which invites to different ways of listening: tuning in to the textural collective sound or small acoustic elements, to the chords that almost repeat, to minimalistic slowly evolving motifs, or to beautiful melodic passages. It’s still deeply romantic music at its core, journey-like, but still strangely naive and strict, capturing a unique kind of tension.

This second instalment of 'Aurora' draws inspiration from mythological birds and spiritual poetry (for instance 'Conference of the birds' by Farid Ud-din Attar), referencing the rebirth of the phoenix on "Fenice", or the aforementioned poem on "Valley of Detachment". As a Bandcamp commenter wrote about 'Aurora', this is once again a "vital spiritual adventure". Truly spellbinding chamber music by one of Europe's most innovative and shape-shifting jazz artists and composers.