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European duo Food has released a new album called ‘Quiet Inlet’. It’s an appropriate title. This is music that flows – away from the mainstream. Food consists of Norwegian Thomas Stronen on drums and electronics and English saxophonist Iain Ballamy. On the new record they’re joined by Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz and Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer. The World’s Ken Bader has today’s Global Hit. (Photo: Knut Bry/ECM Records) Download MP3
Listen to tracks from Quiet Inlet

Songs played in this Global Hit:
ARTIST: Food
ALBUM: Quiet Inlet
TRACKS PLAYED:
1. Cirrina
2. Tobiko
3. Mictyris

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Read the Transcript
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LISA MULLINS: This music is from a new album by the European duo, Food. The album is called Quiet Inlet. And that’s an appropriate title. This is music that flows, away from the mainstream. And it is quiet, usually. Food consists of Norwegian Thomas Stronen on drums and electronics and English saxophonist Iain Ballamy. On the new CD, they’re joined by Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz and Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer. Our Global Hit today comes from The World’s Ken Bader.

KEN BADER:  There’s a lot going on in Quiet Inlet. Percussionist Thomas Stronen draws on music from Indonesia, Japan, and West Africa. He cites American jazz and minimalism as other influences. Saxophone player Iain Ballamy comes from a different musical place.

IAIN BALLAMY:  I’d say at the bottom of my playing, there was more church music and more Bach and more classical music as my roots. And then there is blues.

BADER: So, mix all those ingredients, and you’ve got a composition by Food? Well, not exactly.

BALLAMY: We don’t have any compositions per se. You know, we don’t have 16-bar chord sequences, and a tune that goes on top, and a pre-determined groove or something like that. I think of, if you like, the palette of making music like this as being a different tool kit or a different palette, if you like. So I describe it as dynamics, sounds, space, texture, light and shade.

BADER: It all comes together somehow. Thomas Stronen illustrates the process with a track called Tobiko.

THOMAS STRONEN: It started with me sampling an African thumb piano called mbira. I started playing with chopsticks on the mbira, And, as I played, I sampled different tones and different beats I played. And, as I played, I programmed some of it, sampled some of it, and made a small loop. I played that off, and then Christian Fennesz joined in with sort of guitarish, atmospheric noises in the background. I go to the drums and start beats, playing together with the samples. And Iain joins in with very nice melodies.

BADER: This is improvised music. The musicians don’t necessarily know at the outset of each piece how it will unfold. Iain Ballamy says he and Thomas Stronen just go with the flow that they both create.

BALLAMY: What we tend to do is to gather elements and feelings and nuances from all kinds of music that makes us tick, if you like. And then, somehow or other, they all go into the boiling pot and come out, hopefully, at the right moment in the right way.

BADER: And, more often than not, they do. For The World, I’m Ken Bader.

MULLINS:  You can find more on the European group, Food, on our website. That’s TheWorld.org. From the Nan and Bill Harris studios at WGBH in Boston, I’m Lisa Mullins. Thanks for listening.

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