* Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * Founded in 1969 by the pianist Ole Mathiessen, the bassist Henrik Hove, the saxophonist Jesper Nehammer, and drummer Jon Finsen, Tordenskjolds Soldater was one of the great - albeit short-lived - projects in Copenhagen’s thriving scene of free improvisation and jazz of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Across the proceeding decade or so, Denmark had provided shelter for some of the most radical voices in free jazz from across the globe, with the famous venue, Jazzhus Montmartre, providing a site for creative ferment for Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, Paul Bley, and numerous others. But, as the 1960s wained and the '70s dawned, the international vanguard began to spend less time in the country, opening space and need for a young generation of Danish improvisers to cultivate their own scene. Answering the call, a new, grass roots arts venue, the Reprise Theatre, opened in the Copenhagen suburb of Holte in 1967, providing space for open, unrestricted creativity. It was from this context that each member of Tordenskjolds Soldater emerged, before coming together formally in 1969.
Ole Mathiessen, Henrik Hove, Jesper Nehammer, and Jon Finsen were all incredibly active in different projects, spanning a number of genres, in the Copenhagen scene prior to the founding of Tordenskjolds Soldater. The band’s name, in fact, is a colloquial allusion to something roughly akin to “usual suspects”. These guys were in deep understanding, making it little surprise that, following the closure of Reprisen in the spring of 1970, and a shift in programming at Jazzhus Montmartre during roughly the same moment, Tordenskjolds Soldater became one of the venerable jazz venue’s house bands, playing every Monday for most of the remainder of that year, where they were often joined onstage by luminaries, sitting in, like Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Chick Corea, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Ed Thigpen, and Lee Schipper. It was during this period of heightened activity that the band recorded its lone commercial release, “Peace”, for the legendary imprint Spectator Records. Largely overlooked at the time, that album - one of the great European gestures of Spiritual jazz of the era - now commands prices in the general vicinity of 1,000 Euros on the secondary market.
Comprising a never before released body of recording made during roughly the same period - what might have been the follow up to “Peace” but never was - “Love”, Tordenskjolds Soldater’s first new LP in more than 50 years, picks up within the rich territory where its predecessor left off. Laden with deep grooves and driving rhythms, the album launches into action with the opener, “Native Land”, a joyous explosion built around the visionary piano playing of Ole Mathiessen, foot stomping, hypnotic cycles by Henrik Hove and Jon Finsen, and soulful lines by Jesper Nehammer on sax. From here the band moves into alternate version of “Memoires of Isadora Duncan”, a composition that featured on “Peace”, this time encountering Matthiessen winding through the intoxicating melodies of Nehammer on Fender Rhodes. From here on, every track has never been encountered before in recorded form as the first side hits souring heights as the band locks in with “Dah Dah”, a piece that makes subtle nods to joyous territory being explored roughly concurrently by artists like Don Cherry, Chris McGregor, and Dudu Pukwana during the early '70s, threading avant-garde jazz with a deep sense of soulfulness.
This momentum carries over onto the album’s second side with “Labor of Love”, subtly infusing the band’s driving rhythms with a Latin flavor as the band flies high on the wing of Matthiessen’s piano. From here they dial down into the sorrowful balladry of “Old Jewish Song”, a stunning modal piece working its way in a slow, rumbling, glacial pace toward the album’s final, joyous explosion of “The Z Song”, yet another body swaying spiritual jazz number by one of the tightest bands working in Denmark at the dawn of the 1970s.
Capturing an incredible moment in time, during which Danish musicians led their own charge and build an incredible, albeit sinfully overlooked scene, Tordenskjolds Soldater’s astounding, long-lost follow up to “Peace” is nothing short of a revelation and one of the most intoxicating listens that we’ve encountered in recent years. A truly striking statement that reminds you how much fun jazz can be, “Love” is issued by Alga Marghen’s new Formalibera imprint in a highly limited, beautifully produced vinyl edition, with fantastic, exploratory liner notes by Ole Mathiessen, it can’t be missed.
