Andres Thor: Relocate

Icelandic guitarist Andres Thor has spent the better part of two decades quietly building a catalog that swings between Nordic chamber-jazz and something closer to countrified twang, and on Relocate the splits the difference again, this time with a jazz trio featuring French bassist Nicolas Moreaux and Icelandic drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen. The record follows the trio's 2022 debut, Hereby on Losen Records. Nine tracks, forty minutes, not a wasted motion—this is a band that has clearly done its homework and does not feel the need to show it off.

The pleasures here are largely textural. Thor moves between electric, acoustic, and pedal steel guitars with the ease of a man switching reading glasses, and the steel work in particular gives Grace on High a lonesome, lap-slide sheen that nudges the trio toward Americana without ever quite arriving there. "Tuesday Morning Coffee" is the record's closest thing to a barnburner, though barnburner is a relative term in a discography this unhurried; even at its most animated, the trio prefers a simmer to a boil. Moreaux's bass playing deserves particular mention—he is a listener's bassist, threading countermelodies under Thor's lines rather than merely anchoring them, and his tone throughout is round and woody in a way that flatters the whole session.

Where the album loses a bit of altitude is in its sameness of mood. "Ker," and "Mind and Matter," occupy such similar tempo and dynamic ranges that the middle third can start to feel like variations on a single idea rather than three distinct compositions; a jazz-rock detour or an honest up-tempo burner would have gone a long way toward breaking the reverie. Eliassen's drumming is tasteful to a fault—always in service of the tune, rarely stepping forward to claim a moment of its own. A standout track is the melodic "Skewed Mindset," featuring a hummable primary theme.

Relocate is a handsome, well-tailored record from musicians who know exactly what they do well. Whether they are interested in surprising themselves any time soon is a separate question, and not one this album is in a hurry to answer.