Morten Duun: Code Breaker

This album by guitarist Morten Duun constructs a delicate and indeterminate beauty from just a few elements: guitar, trumpet, drums and occasional piano and voice. The music is a gauzy blend of sounds set in a lush silence reminiscent of some of the ECM recordings of Ralph Towner. There is a dreamy feel to the interplay of Duun's strummed guitar and Brandon Choi's echoing trumpet on "Everything You Say is a Spoon," with drummer Wouter Kuhne rumbling in the background. The trio achieves a tighter melodic unity in "On Space" and "Anti-arrhythmic Arithmetic," which turns harder as Duun switches to forceful electric guitar that swirls around Choi's focused single-note blasts.

Other musicians add more weight and body to the basic trio on several tracks. Matthew Sheens' piano brings formal gravity to "Actual Malice." He also bounces lightly off Choi's muted playfulness on "They Build Dams to Stem the Flood of Tears" before the piece surges into heavy prog rock storming led by the leader's guitar. Voices are another important component of this music. Mim Crellin provides an added bit of humanity on "Closeness in Distance" as she sings wordlessly against Choi's sighing trumpet. She also beautifully sings an evocative Mediterranean melody over the drifting instrumental ambiance of "Splashing in the Shallows." Then there is "Ever" with Crellin and Theo Bleckmann trading vocal lines as Duun's guitar weaves between them, producing an eerie sort of acid-folk vibe.

This is a sparse but intriguing album that gives off a hazy cloud of mystery. Morten Duun and the other musicians put together something with a haunting atmosphere that is unsettling on the surface but somehow soothing in its assured grace.

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