Trygve

The colours of The Magical Forest glow in this remarkable recording which brings together Sinikka Langeland’s Norwegian-Finnish-Swedish Starflowers quintet with the singers of the Trio Mediӕval. It’s an inspired concept: the Trio Mediӕval, with their affinity for folk music and their unique vocal blend, adapt themselves ideally to Sinikka’s sound-world, which is once archaic, timeless and contemporary. The quintet members, all bandleaders in their own right, are amongst the most characterful players in Scandinavia today, and Sinikka sets them free to improvise around her cycle of songs, built upon myths and legends of the world tree.

Noted Norwegian bassist Mats Eilertsen, a veteran of countless sessions with many groups, presents his own music as he steps forward as bandleader of an international cast on Rubicon. The album features compositions originally written in response to a 2014 commission from the Vossajazz Festival in Norway. After tweaking the material on tour, Eilertsen brought his septet to record the album in Oslo in May 2015.

Hailed as a “fascinating journey with music of timeless beauty”, Trio Mediæval’s highly acclaimed first album
“Words of the Angel” (2001) launched the group into the elite circles of early music ensembles and introduced them to a broad international audience. Formed in 1997, the Grammy nominated vocal ensemble consists of founder members Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman, and Jorunn Lovise Husan who joined the group in 2018.

The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of directions in music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. They've played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet.

The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of directions in music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. They've played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet. Compositions by Anders Jormin and Trygve Seim, the Finnish traditional "Armon Lapset" (Children of Mercy), and Jormin's arrangement of Ornette Coleman's "What Reason Could I Give" are slotted into a programme of graceful collective improvisations distinguished by lyrical imagination, reflective soloing and sensitive group interaction. Arcanum, recorded at Village Recording Studio, Copenhagen, and mixed in Munich in January 2025, was produced by Manfred Eicher.