Music Reviews from the Staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House

 

November 6, 2024
Cyclism - Bloomers
Label: Relative Pitch Records
Catalog #: RPR1215
Location: United States
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Media: compact disc or digital download
bandcamp.com entry
discogs.com entry

Cyclism is the debut album by a new ensemble, Bloomers composed of Maria Dybbroe on clarinet and alto saxophone, Carolyn Goodwin on clarinet and bass clarinet and Anne Efternøler on trumpet. To our knowledge, this trio has only previously released one track, which appeared on the compilation organized by Dybbroe, titled MEUF vol.1, and released on March 8, 2023, International Women's Day. At that time, the trio was not identified by the group name, Bloomers. On Cyclism, they have adopted Bloomers as a clear reference to an American reformer of the nineteenth century, Amelia Bloomer, a champion of women's rights.

Amelia Bloomer became involved in a dress-reform movement as well when she began appearing in public wearing full-cut pantaloons, or "Turkish trousers," under a short skirt. She attracted considerable ridicule for appearing in the costume, and the pantaloons came to be called "bloomers."*

The members of this trio have a discography of releases primarily appearing on European (especially Danish) labels. Cyclism serves as their introduction to American audiences. For those unfamiliar with the musicians, Maria Dybroe is a Danish saxophonist and composer, who has received numerous accolades. Her band, Maraton, received the Prize "New Name of the Year" at Danish Music Awards Jazz in 2021. For the past five years, the music coming from several of her ensembles has been favorite listening to the ears of the staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House. A list of reviews of earlier releases posted on the PPPH blog appears at the bottom of this page.

Carolyn Goodwin is an Irish clarinetist and composer, who established a collaboration with musicians on the Copenhagen scene. We have been thrilled by her work with the Copenhagen Clarinet Choir and with Jacob Anderskov, both of which also included Ms. Dybbroe.

The trumpet-playing of Anne Efternøler is largely new to our ears but, at the risk of repeating ourselves, one of the joys of following improvisational musicians is having old friends introduce a listener to new friends.

Together, this trio of women present a variety of collaborative music that draws cues not only from jazz but from other influences as well. Cyclism contains fifteen tracks ranging in duration from just under one minute to five and a half minutes. We speculate that the tracks contain a mixture elements along the spectrum from composition to improvisation. Certainly, there are tracks that have the characteristic sound of free improvisation, where the ears detects a music in which the performers within the trio are responding in the instant to each others' playing. The tone and tempo is contemplative; this is not a trio that thrives on a frenetic pace.

Ms. Dybbroe has a signature sound with the saxophone that makes an appearance on the first track of Cyclism. The clarinet of Ms. Goodwin appears in a couple different roles, sometimes providing a deep and fluid flow over which the interjections of the saxophone sound. At other times, the clarinet seems to present its own thoughts in a more classical idiom, to which the other instruments respond in more abstract ways. It seems to our ear that the trumpet playing of Ms. Efternøler is most experimental in nature, generating sounds from the brass instrument that are far outside the conventional repertoire. Those seeking brash declarations from the trumpet will not find it here. As a group, Bloomers present a sympathetic trio to say the least. None rush to be heard as the pre-eminent voice in the ensemble. To the contrary, sometimes we harbored a distinct suspicion that each was trying to propel her bandmates to the fore by stepping backward!

Each song on Cyclism is titled with a location and date. The staff of the PPPH succumbed to the temptation to solve the riddle of each event tied to the location and date of each song. It turns out that each song is associated with a person or event relevant to the historical struggle for women's rights. When we think of the practice of imbuing an instrumental piece of music with meaning from a historical event, our thoughts turn to American trumpeter, Wadada Leo Smith, who routinely titles music with events from the Civil Rights Movement. (See for example, Ten Freedom Summers, String Quartets, The Emerald Duets, Rosa Parks: Pure Love, and many more.)

For the interested, in the list below, we identify the historical event associated with each track on Cyclism. In most cases, we are fairly confident that we have made a correct identification. However, we have not confirmed this pairing with the artists.

  • track: 1
  • track: 2
    • title: Stockholm, December 10, 1905
    • historical event: On December 10, 1905, Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicitas von Suttner became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
    • reference URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_von_Suttner
  • track: 3
    • title: Beacon Hill, June 27, 1894
    • historical event: On June 27, 1894, at about 11 o'clock in the morning, Annie Londonderry set off from the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill on her journey to become the first woman to bicycle around the world.
    • reference URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Londonderry
  • track: 4
  • track: 5
  • track: 6
    • title: Venice, June 5, 1646
    • historical event: Born on June 5, 1646, Elena Lucrezia Corner, also known in English as Helen Cornaro, was a Venetian philosopher of noble descent who in 1678 became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
    • reference URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Cornaro_Piscopia
  • track: 7
    • title: Paris, November 3, 1793
    • historical event: On November 1793, Olympe de Gouges, a French playwright and political activist, best known for her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen was executed by guillotine.
    • reference URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges
  • track: 8
  • tracks: 9 & 10
    • title: Tehran, September 16, 2022 (parts 1 & 2)
    • historical event: On 16 September 2022, 22-year-old Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, after being arrested by the Guidance Patrol, the religious morality police of Iran's government, for allegedly not wearing the hijab. Eyewitnesses reported that she was severely beaten and that she died as a result of police brutality.
    • reference URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Mahsa_Amini
  • track: 11
    • title: Moscow, February 21, 2012
    • historical event: On February 21, 2012, as part of a protest movement against the re-election of Vladimir Putin, five women from the punk group, Pussy Riot, entered the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. They put on colorful balaclavas, ran up the steps leading to the altar, and began to jump, kick, and throw air punches. Film of the performance was used to create a video clip for the song, "Punk Prayer: Mother of God Drive Putin Away". Two women served two years imprisonment for the act.
    • reference URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Riot
  • track: 12
  • track: 13
  • track: 14
  • track: 15
    • title: Mollis, Switzerland, June 13, 1782
    • historical event: On June 13, 1782, Swiss housemaid Anna Göldi was executed by decapitation for witchcraft. She has been called the "last witch" in Switzerland.
    • reference URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_G%C3%B6ldi

Also available from Barefoot Records are paper dolls of the three musicians (left to right: Maria, Anne & Carolyn) dressed in 1880s fashion. "It's a small tribute to Amelia Bloomer, but it's also our way of highlighting the continued objectification of the female body."

personnel:

 

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