Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

ALBUM REVIEW August 25, 2020

Mats Eilertsen Trio & Trio Mediaeval: Memorabilia

Read "Memorabilia" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

Talk of an album sounding highly reminiscent of something that could be released on Manfred Eicher's ECM label is quite common. But it does not come as a surprise anymore that much of today's music shares similar melancholic and minimalist contemporary leanings with the aesthetic found on the pioneering Munich-based label. However, this debut date, led between bassist Mats Eilertsen, his trio and Trio Mediaeval, screams ECM. Not only have both Eilertsen and the vocal trio recorded extensively with ECM, ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 20, 2019

Mats Eilertsen: Reveries and Revelations

By John Eyles

In rock music, the heyday of “and friends" albums (Leon Russell or Eric Clapton releases for examples) seems long past; on such records, the headliner was joined by a famous star names on different tracks, their presence helping to attract publicity and boost sales. The last hooray of the genre probably came with charity recordings such as Band Aid's “Do They Know It's Christmas," “We Are the World" and their ilk. However, away from rock music, Reveries and Revelations suggests ...

ALBUM REVIEW March 7, 2019

Mats Eilertsen Trio: And Then Comes The Night

By Mark Sullivan

Norwegian bassist Mats Eilertsen has a large discography as a performer, but his compositional talents are equally striking. His previous ECM release as a leader, 2016's Rubicon, was a composer's showcase featuring a septet. But he has also worked in much smaller configurations, for example Meander (Ora Fonogram, 2017) his recent duet recording with guitarist Jo David Meyer Lysne. This album reunites him with pianist Harmen Fraanje (who appeared on Rubicon) and drummer Thomas Strønen (a fellow band ...

ALBUM REVIEW February 5, 2019

Mats Eilertsen: And Then Comes The Night

By Mike Jurkovic

On their first offering for ECM as a trio, And Then Comes The Night, stalwart label mates: bassist/leader/composer {Mats Eilertsen, drummer Thomas Strønen, and ethereal pianist Harmen Fraanje deftly create a sustained work of near impossible beauty and sublime human interaction. With evanescent shifts of time, shaded harmony and tone, Eilertsen--his nuanced writing highlighted on the acutely hailed Rubicon (ECM, 2016)--the bassist boldly strips down from septet to a trio, resulting in a music more expansive, more revelatory ...

ALBUM REVIEW September 10, 2018

Skydive Trio: Sun Sparkle

By Karl Ackermann

Norwegian guitarist Thomas Dahl's primary project is the Skydive Trio with bassist Mats Eilertsen and drummer Olavi Louhivuouri. The trio is an off-shoot of a quintet of the same name that includes tenor saxophonist Tore Brunborg and pianist Alexi Tuomarila. Sun Sparkle is the second release from the smaller group whose sound, like the album title, reflects ideas from both familiar and eclectic musical worlds. Dahl has collected a number of honors in his native land, including Norway's ...

ALBUM REVIEW May 29, 2018

Skydive Trio: Sun Sparkle

By Gareth Thompson

There are parts of Norway where the sun hardly sets for months on end. It stays bright all night and dawn is never dark. The essence of this strange polar light finds its way into Sun Sparkle, the second album from Norwegian act Skydive Trio. Its predecessor, Sun Moee, also referenced our great burning star, which can hardly be coincidence. There is something both mythic and solar about this trio's music. Fittingly it also comes over as equally retro and ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 29, 2016

Mats Eilertsen: Rubicon

By John Kelman

It's no news to learn that we're the confluence of our many experiences: life, love, music....everything that we are comes from where we've been, what we've done, what we've experienced. That said, it doesn't mean that we can't move in completely new directions or try something completely foreign to us. Still, it's almost impossible to do anything--even things that are intentionally new and different--without there being some inescapable links to our past. With Mats Eilertsen's evocative Rubicon, the double bassist ...