Trygve Seim Different Rivers

The Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim grew up in the provincial coastal city of Trondheim. It was calm and quiet, there were no crowds and he could hike in the wooded hills, with their trails and camp-sites. He really liked it there. Just released, Seim's first album as a leader - Different Rivers - sounds organized and clean, cold and uncrowded like that. … Different Rivers is melancholy, lonely, hypnotizing music - harder to escape from than to listen to. Like a fireplace in an ice palace, you get hooked on it; it's almost physical. … Seim's version of the ECM sound presents a wind-instrument chamber ensemble, a sort of slow-floating, pianissimo little-big band with occasional understated kicks. The shadow of Gil Evans hovers. The hornblowers finesse their personal, breathy, nonsymphonic textures from behind the beat.

The 2010 ECM album Purcor - Songs for Saxophone and Piano features tenor/soprano saxophonist Trygve Seim and pianist Andreas Utnem dueting on various original and traditional compositions. Although this is the first time the two musicians have recorded together, their partnership extends back to the mid-'90s when Utnem, working with Norway's Church City Mission foundation, invited Seim to perform with him at several church services. Choosing from a mix of liturgical compositions for mass and some original pieces, Utnem then played in his own classical- and jazz-based style while Seim improvised around him. The result, as heard on this album, is a kind of hybrid of classical, jazz, and folk styles fits nicely into the softly introspective, and cerebral ECM approach.