Good to Be Back (Vivaldi.21)
Morning Light
E. Song
Cross the Undangered Spaces
Sunland
Surface
Song In A Song
Mirage
Life on Mars, Book of Dreams
Residual Time
Survivor's Song
Key Song

The French drummer Olivier le Goas is one of the busiest musicians in his country. He has had his own bands for 35 years, and at the same time he has played with pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic, the big band of pianist Laurent Cogny, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, pianists Benoit Delbecq and Jean-Michel Pilc, trumpeters Kenny Wheeler, Avishai Cohen and Charles Tolliver, and guitarist Ben Monder. His own bands have been filled with such illustrious musicians as John Abercrombie, Ralph Alessi, Drew Gress, Manu Codjia, Nir Felder, Kevin Hays, John Escreet and Larry Grenadier. He is now presenting a new trio on "Sunland", which includes bassist Lukas Traxel and pianist Kristjan Randalu.

"The album should have been recorded years ago, but the coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench in our plans," le Goas sighed. In May 2023, the three musicians finally went to the legendary Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg to record twelve songs that the drummer composed especially for this line-up. Tricky meters ("Good to be Back", "Life on Mars/Book of Dreams", "Mirage") play just as important a role as songs inspired by folk songs ("E. Song", "Key Song") and multithematic songs ("A Song in a Song", "Morning Light", "Cross the Undangered Species").

"The 'Key Song‘ was inspired by Keith Jarrett's folksy compositions," le Goas explained. “Both melodies work like question and answer. This structure enables a very centered sound, in which the piano solo conveys a completely different impression." The Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu – winner of the solo piano competition of the Montreux Jazz Festival 2002 – knows how to take advantage of such an opportunity.

"Residual Time" uses principles developed by Arnold Schönberg to create a fluid theme, in which the melody and the bass react to each other. "I regularly went to the New York Public Library during my time in New York twenty years ago," le Goas said. "I discovered Arnold Schönberg's unprecedented 'Structural Functions of Harmony‘ there. The second chapter ‘Principles of Harmony’ is mainly about progressions in the bass line. The idea of removing the bass line from the accompaniment function and composing a second melody for the bass was like an enlightenment for me."

But sometimes the drummer gets inspired as if out of nowhere. “One morning I woke up with a tune in my head,” he recalled. "This resulted in 'Surface' with its many reharmonizations. Similar to Pat Metheny's 'Lakes‘, I composed the piece as an exercise in which the melodic motif is changed again and again, both in terms of its length and key. My goal was to compose a piece that has a certain freshness from beginning to end."

On the other hand, the lively and rhythmically extremely tricky opener "Good to be Back" is based on a classic motif. “The song was directly inspired by the first movement of Vivaldi's 'Concerto for two violins in A minor‘,” le Goas stated. "The concert is full of energy. My theme spans a sequence of complex meters, including a 21/8 beat, while the bass follows its own rhythmic line, which is also constantly changing.”

Olivier le Goas could talk about every song in this way – and does so in the album's liner notes – but the beauty of his trio's music is that you can enjoy it without any explanation. The vitality of the three musicians – Lukas Traxel has so far been heard primarily in the trio of pianist Marie Krüttli, but also recorded his first own album with Otis Sandsjö and Moritz Baumgärtner last year – makes "Sunland" not only a sunny affair, but also makes the three-man band a trio of a special European class.