Marius Neset - Cabaret (2025) [Hi-Res]

Cabaret: a song and dance or two, some jokes, hummable tunes, and perhaps some sparkles - right? OK, but know that this cabaret is informed by a breathtakingly wide-ranging musical imagination. Now you have a better idea what to expect from the latest inspired work from Norwegian saxophonist and composer Marius Neset. The players on the album “Cabaret” are the same as on Neset’s striking 2022 effort, “Happy”: Elliot Galvin (keyboards), Magnus Hjorth (piano), Conor Chaplin (electric bass) and Anton Eger (drums & percussion). “Happy” was the first time they played together as a quintet, lending it a freshness in discovery. Now, though, they are a seasoned working band: “we’ve played a lot of concerts, and the interplay is different”, recapitulates Marius Neset. After recent releases featuring Neset’s widescreen large ensemble writing for the London Sinfonietta including an appearance in the programme of BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, a solo saxophone record, and a through-written duo suite with classical piano star Leif Ove Andsnes, a new project with the quintet was “a bit like coming home again”, says Marius Neset. But not do the same thing again. “The whole thing is about developing the music”.

The five reconvened in the celebrated coastal retreat of Norway’s Ocean Sound Studio, which Marius Neset used for 2015’s ‘Pinball’, to tackle music in which “every single note was composed for these specific musicians”. That again exploits the sound of two keyboards. Neset thinks orchestrally, and the combination of Magnus Hjorth on acoustic piano - mainly focussing on melody - and Elliot Galvin’s texturally varied electric keyboards offers “enormous possibilities” for the composer. The new pieces also expand the envelope rhythmically, posing challenges for bassist Conor Chaplin and Anton Eger on drums - “the most dedicated musician I’ve ever met” - who puts enough closely targeted energy into the music to light a small town. A clue lies in the mysteriously titled ‘Hyp3rsonic Cabar3t’, the first piece here Neset wrote. The numerals signify the 33 beat rhythmic cycle that animates it, to mesmeric effect. Five other songs use the same figure, in very different ways. The listener may not realise, says Neset, but “it’s the most conceptual album I’ve ever made”.

All this made for a memorable time in the studio. “Putting something like this together means making lots of choices the whole time. It’s hard. I’m getting better at throwing things out, but I don’t feel I understand more - it was very intense!” That effort comes out in the best possible way. Neset’s music is often dense and intricate, but needs players who can tackle it like him, with a kind of focussed abandon. And there’s plenty of that here. The listener is on a roller-coaster ride, following songs that are rich in contrasts, torrential melodic invention, and shifting dynamics. Many influences are mixed in, notably hints of Joe Zawinul’s melodic and textural signatures, and traces of one-time mentor Django Bates’ puckish humour. But the whole record, from the virtuosic sax playing on tenor and soprano - where a technique the equal of Michael Brecker meets a melodic sense to rival that of any horn player alive - to the compositional detail, is pure Neset.

There is so much packed in here. The madcap dance of the two opening titles is offset by the cool lyricism of ‘Song for Maja’, the effervescence of ‘Midsummer Beats’ succeeded by the stately voyage of ‘Ocean’, the energy of ‘Quantum Dance’ by the wistfulness of ‘Forgotten Ballet’, while ‘Wedding In Geiranger’, written to mark Neset’s own betrothal last summer, ends the set with a theme like a freshly minted folk song. It’s an eventful and dramatic journey, after which the listener will surely want to begin again.

Marius Neset, tenor and soprano saxophones, EWI
Elliot Galvin, keyboards
Magnus Hjorth, piano
Conor Chaplin, electric bass
Anton Eger, drums & percussion