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The title track of said album kicks off this compilation and forcefully makes it clear why E.S.T reached beyond a jazz audience. They had songs. Hooks. Themes fit for radio purpose. They were often ethereal and gentle, their contours modelled on the classical music that Svensson had so thoroughly absorbed alongside his education as an improvising musician, and at times these melodies hovered on the edge of easy listening, their trajectory understated enough to work as incidental music. Yet E.S.T’s output was equally defined by the kind of musicianship that saw both Berglund and Ostrom pass impressively pithy comment on a chord sequence or rhythmic cycle to effectively lift the band’s aesthetic beyond the trite even if their form was accessible, something that jazz moral custodians often treat as a vice when, if well wrought, it can be a virtue.
Owing an obvious debt to Keith Jarrett’s early 70s folk but not folk, rock but beyond rock sensibilities, E.S.T was well versed in pop culture and contemporary technology, be it the snakish, electronic shimmer around the piano or the quivering, curvaceous flange on the bass, and they used such strategies well. Their sleek ambient and funk-rock forays are pleasing rather than truly overwhelming though, and it is hard to escape the feeling they could have achieved more had they emboldened the sonic starkness, if not wildness, at which they often picked. A hip hop producer could have been the key. Posthumous remixes might still open stylistic doors. --Kevin Le Gendre
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The music says it all and you start with the incredibly poignant "From Gagarin's Point of View" which is sad but beautiful - simple but eloquent. As an opener it is simply breathtaking in context and never fails to move me.
The album moves on to livelier territory and at times you have an acoustic version of Drum 'n Bass - fast rhythmic workouts that are exciting and exhilerating. While the Piano,Double Bass and Drums trio is a classic Jazz lineup - generally associated with sophisticated but gentle music - EST can rock out and they introduce effects in a subtle but effective manner.
The sound is always top quality and the instruments are perfectly recorded - the acoustic interplay of the group is the core of their ethic. But there are effects on the bass which add interest and bring that to the foreground, as just as much a solo instrument, as the piano.
There are tunes here that really stay with you and some great grooves, as well as an approach to improvising that is unique to these players.
The music here is from 1999 to 2008 - so it's the later part of their career and certainly their most mature and well-recorded. This gives the package a consistency of quality and feel, which makes it more like a single album than a compilation.
There really could not be a better introduction to their studio work than this and possibly not a better tribute to a great talent who will be sorely missed.
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