The Silent Life

Well, no one can ever accuse Jonas Hellborg of selling out. It takes a gutsy man (with his own label) to release an entire album of solo pieces for the acoustic bass guitar, but if anyone were going to do it, it would be Hellborg. Despite its obvious sonic limitations, this is a very fine album. There are few bass guitarists who can make chords sound good on that instrument, and most of those who can probably learned how to do it from Hellborg. It also helps that the 13 tracks on this program are all relatively brief and that most of them actually seem to be compositions rather than improvisations. "Roman" is an exceptionally beautiful, almost pastoral piece that proceeds with all the linear logic of a Bach partita; "Low" starts out so low that it's almost subliminal, then grows into a nice chordal wave that ebbs and flows with a slow but regular rhythm. Not everything is perfect: "Wounded Knee" sounds too much like a popping etude ("Iron Dog" uses the same technique much more musically). But you may be surprised at how much of it comes close to perfection. Still, this album will probably be of interest primarily to bass players.