I am thoroughly enjoying 2025. The music I have encountered in these first four months has challenged me to explore and appreciate what it means when we speak about music being an ‘immersive experience’. The journey began with Nicola Lori’s compelling Urban Vision, which warmly embraces you in the swirling moods and sensibilities of modern city life. Cosmic Lark from Lyrella seduces and enchants you with luscious symphonic soundscapes, transporting you to realms and worlds both seen and unseen.
Quite unexpectedly, the same journey continues with Freya – Arctic Jam. The music emerges from the continuing collaboration between Djabe and Steve Hackett. It is gorgeously rich, undeniably engaging and unquestionably immersive. But this time, the experience of being enveloped, of being completely captivated and deeply engaged, takes a different complexion.
From the outset, the unmistakable sense of being lifted out of the here and now is immediate and engrossing. There is little doubt the improvisational nature of the origins of the recording in jam sessions held during their time at the BodØ Jazz Open festival in Norway, one hundred kilometres inside the Arctic Circle, creates a palpable and distinctive energy. The tangible atmosphere of the music, the fluidity and responsiveness of the instruments to and with each other, fosters the rapid formation of enticing emotional connections between the spaces and places so elegantly captured in the music and the listener who stands enthralled by the experience.
Opening track In the Silence (Track 1) sets the scene with a powerful invocation of arctic vistas, icy windswept horizons, and expansive, rugged shorelines. The music generates a skittish fusion formed by the various ingredients characteristic of the spaces and places being painted in the soundscapes, creating a cinematic experience in which you feel vividly present to and surrounded by the textures being painted. The order in which the instruments appear, the way they interplay and hand over to each other, the seamless transitions forge a context, a cradle, where you cannot be anywhere else but here, now, at this time, in this place. We are inescapably absorbed.
Whispers of the Woods (Track 4) brings a new dimension to understanding immersive experience: detail and texture. Across the track, a bedrock of gorgeous, intricate, rhythmic drumming lays the foundation for undulating keyboard-driven arrangements to dance and play until a gentle pivot changes direction, moving us into Hackett’s echoed guitar drifting across the forest plains. An impulsive trumpet calls, flits and fades across the landscape. The mix itself is deliberately nuanced in the way you feel intimately embraced, surrounded and, as a result, rooted in the place where the music is happening. These intricate, exquisite textures forge a detailed sense of presence, encouraging and inspiring you to occupy the spaces where the music takes you.
Sliding Trees (Track 5) not only continues the musical crescendo of the preceding track but also introduces another aspect of immersion into the picture: synergy and resonance. Across the nine minutes of this track, the deceptively languid and easy-going conversation which unfolds between successive instruments is a delight in how it feeds off the energies and dynamism of the musicians. The musical experience is seamless. We are not distracted by moments or specific episodes. The musical canvas weaves a continuous experience; it invites us to engage with the album as a whole rather than simply a collection of tracks. By doing so, we experience a range of shifting dynamics, beautifully arranged textures, each layer enthralling and delighting in the insights they enable and the feelings they deliver.
In fact, I think this is Freya‘s crowning achievement. Again and again, we find ourselves rooted in a wondrous sense of presence. The music makes us feel as if we are there, with the musicians, almost conducting the sequences of instruments coming and going, encouraging, caressing, and propelling us ever onward. We are there, and we contribute something of ourselves in being there. We have to contribute something of ourselves: we are given no choice.
That is the meaning of music being an immersive experience. It isn’t something we ‘just’ hear. It is something we inhabit, something which comes alive within us. Immersive music is something we live. Freya – Arctic Jam positions us in a new world and roots us in its distinctive landscapes. It encourages us to live and feel the passing of time, experience the changing moods, and savour the atmospheres which are created. It is a thrilling yet gentle embrace which carries us far.
TRACK LISTING
DISC ONE – CD
01. In The Silence (8:26)
02. Freya (5:26)
03. Stone Age Tea (6:46)
04. Whispers Of The Woods (8:34)
05. Sliding Trees (9:18)
06. The Lost Ship (6:06)
07. A Storm Is Brewing (8:26)
DISC TWO – BLU-RAY
– 5.1 MIX
01. In The Silence
02. Freya
03. Stone Age Tea
04. Whispers Of The Woods
05. Sliding Trees
06. The Lost Ship
07. A Storm Is Brewing
– Live Audio Extras
01. Beginning Of Legends
02. The Magic Stag
03. Golden Sand
04. Island
– Live Video Extras
Filmed In Concert Győr, Hungary, 19 June 2023
01. Camino Royale
02. Ace of Wands
03. Tale
04. The Carpet Crawlers
05. Arctic Jam (Documentary)
MUSICIANS
Tamás Barabás – Bass, Vocals, Guitar
Zoltán Bubenyák – Keyboards
Attila Égerházi – Guitar, Vocals, Percussion
Péter Kaszás – Lead Vocals, Drums
Áron Koós-Hutás – Flugelhorn, Trumpet
~ With:
Steve Hackett – Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
ADDITIONAL INFO
Records Label: Esoteric Antenna | Cherry Red Records
Country of Origin: Hungary/UK
Date Of Release: 28th February 2025
LINKS
Djabe – Website | Facebook | YouTube | X | Instagram
Steve Hackett – Website | Facebook | X | Instagram | BlueSky
