Play misty for me
It starts like ethereal jazztronica on ‘Lav Sol’ and the misty style sticks close to that piece. The textures are unusual. Attracted to this knowing the sound of guitar player Mikkel Ploug at least on record I haven’t heard the Dane live yet although I did bump into Ploug at Jazzahead last year introduced by an old mucker of his, from their Copenhagen jamming days, drummer Phelan Burgoyne when I was hanging around the Red Hook stand.
Dark edgelord explorations
But I have heard the clarinettist Joachim Badenhorst in the flesh hardly a famous occasion one time as your correspondent got hopelessly lost in Bruges beforehand and wasn’t in the mood.
Goodbye to all that. It’s a new day and all this time on Badenhorst plays with huge impact and has a visceral edge to what he’s doing especially when being full on avant-garde. He’s not obviously ”out there” on this album issued on his own label, Klein, as its ambient introspection requires a different approach but he does produce some fine passages that reward replaying lots.
The trio is completed by Norwegian vocalist Sissel Vera Pettersen whose voice has a certain grandeur and command to it. Most of the tunes are Ploug’s. But some tracks are improvisations jointly credited. They fit in well with the rest of the offerings.
Peace Chant works wonders
Petterson is folkily dreamy on ‘Winter Lullaby’ but the track takes a little while to ignite.
‘Hinterland’ is more experimental and all the more appealing for its edginess – a bold solo statement from the singer, the sound dressed starkly and compellingly, sets the scene.
Some of the tracks are a little too tentative. But stick with these. A pasty on the go me ‘ansum these are not, more a series of morsels to savour carefully later. A certain process of revelation is ongoing sometimes successfully realised (‘Dis’) others more splutteringly so. ‘Mosaic’ is in the latter category but picks up traction the more you play it. The piece begins with deft naturalistic arpeggiating from Ploug.
Regaining a certain equilibrium
This long running trio sometimes known as Equilbrium after an earlier live album are certainly worth your time, dear reader perhaps deep in suburbia on the bus in from Osidge, mouldering in Malmö, or recently emergent from under a boulder after some sort of unfortunate incident. Let’s draw a veil over that.
But fling open instead the drapes to remain eerily in the vein otherwise by going into this recording that emanates from a bit of convincing Trondheim studio derring do.
The best track – although brief – is the panting African sounding ‘Rift’ when the album comes alive. More of that would have upped the wow factor a notch even more.
