Written on 21 September: Today, approaching another autumnal equinox in Europe, is the UN International Day of Peace.
This studio recording made in Norway dating back to January 2024 was released to coincide with that significant pronouncement.
According to issuing label All Ice Records, which is the imprint of percussionist extraordinaire Terje Isungset, the session took place just after he and his collaborator guitarist Eivind Aarset made In Memories of Nature. The duo are joined by trumpeter Arve Henriksen whose uniquely haunting sound dominates this open, spacious, uber Nordic jazz, recording.
Imagery that springs to mind listening include in no particular order: a fog soft shoreline at twilight where tide and time blur; abandoned, waterlogged streets and ruined piers casually neglected; slow, smoky jazz drifting from a boarded-up club; letters and footsteps erased by surf; the sound of sonar pulses and distant echoes; the hush between waves only as loud as a practically indiscernible held breath.
Uncharted Waters is a whole lot more rewarding and cetainly cheaper than therapy. It’s less brutal – in fact not brutal at all – than open water swimming. It’s also like eating a lot of fruit and vegetables, living a monk-like healthy and peace loving lifestyle all rolled into one. I emerged from all this refreshed and inspired (feeling even more peckish for muesli admittedly). And of course – I’m being deadly serious – reached for John Coltrane’s Om. which is a perfect “after” listen although certainly a more intense one.
- Terje Isungset tours with his remarkable Ice Quartet in England during November. They play Canterbury on the 16th; Basingstoke (17th); Poole (19th); Leeds (20th); Bristol (21st); Southampton (22nd); and London (on the 23rd).
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