Eberhard Weber
Yellow Fields

THE REVIEW

The love for northern music, for the embracing and icy atmospheres that later became typical of ECM, began for me with "Yellow Fields" by Eberhard Weber. I was still in school, and I stumbled upon this album that I haven't let go of since. It could have been written just yesterday, and it manages to maintain its allure, and when you pull it out maybe because you're unsure of what to listen to, you won't put it away again.

Lineup:
Jon Christensen: drums
Rainer Brüninghaus: piano
Eberhard Weber: bass
Charlie Mariano: saxophone

The typical bass sound of Weber is capable of creating atmospheres that I wouldn't call fairy-tale-like, but which nonetheless seem to open up separate worlds—not always melancholic. The album is icy, but that is precisely its characteristic; it doesn't have to make you dream of the northern world, it just has to make you feel cold, very cold.

And perhaps it's precisely this choice of style that gives this production its long life; there's no trace of time, (the album is from 1975), of trends, of fitting into a current. Those somewhat naïve enchanted little trees on the cover, which have become a bit of a distinctive mark for this artist's other productions as well, never cease to fascinate me and make me enjoy this work.

The album is easily available, and I recommend always keeping it ready to cover those moments of mild depression that sometimes envelop us during these long dark November skies.