Espen Eriksen Trio: Almost There

Almost There is the eighth album from the Espen Eriksen Trio and is highly likely to follow the success of their previous seven releases, two of which featured UK saxophonist Andy Sheppard. It is simply a triumph of gentle melodic composition. The sound quality is superb too: the album was recorded at Propeller Music Division in Oslo, Norway, a studio widely regarded as a center of excellence for HiFi testing.

This Norwegian trio, consisting of pianist Eriksen with bassist Lars Tormod Jenset and drummer Andreas Bye, have been together since 2007. After regular worldwide touring, their interplay is as unified as it comes, with their diverse backgrounds including collaborations with John Scofield, Joshua Redman and Bugge Wesseltoft.

Eriksen composed all eight pieces, each steeped in his distinctive style, shifting effortlessly between melancholy and uplift. The tunes are catchy and often cinematic, generally running around four minutes, long enough to make their mark, short enough not to outstay their welcome. There is little room here for extended excursions, and listeners craving a harder edge may find this too gentle. Instead, the trio aims to captivate through emotional melodies underpinned by subtle grooves.

Eriksen's warm, relaxed, bluesy piano opens the title track before gradually developing into an understated, beautifully shaped improvisation, Jenset weaving in a subtle bass solo. "Sepia Sky" follows with Bye establishing a light groove that seems to owe as much to American TV themes as to Norwegian fjords. The trio plays with admirable restraint, creating a deceptively simple tune that lingers in the memory.

Jenset's supple basslines weave around Bye's subtle drumming on the lovely "Winter Is Coming," while Eriksen's chords build a sense of drama that shifts between upbeat and melancholic. Another highlight is "Another Day," a soulful, song-like piece that unfolds gently through calm but compelling interplay.

Elsewhere, the slowly cascading notes of "A Dream In Black And White" bring a vintage feel, while the cyclical "Ancient Rituals" offers contrast with choppy, fractured rhythms and Jenset's arco bass solo. Throughout, the melodies are strong and memorable, sometimes stopping you in your tracks with their sheer loveliness. The return to their original trio format is a triumph: Almost There charms without extended solos or showy virtuosity, relying instead on the empathy of musicians happy to strip everything back and focus on enduring melodies, space and balance. Highly recommended.