Palle Mikkelborg / Jakob Bro / Marilyn Mazur: Strands

Like a door that keeps revolving in a half-forgotten dream, or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream... like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel... and so on. There are more déjà vu moments in Strands than Marcel Proust could have waved a madeleine at.

Three of the six tracks—"Gefion," "Lykaster" and "Oktober"—were first heard on guitarist Jakob Bro's ECM debut, Gefion (2015). Five of them—"Lykaster" and "Oktober" plus "Returnings," "Strands" and "Youth"—then surfaced on Bro's Returnings (ECM, 2018). Trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg was part of Bro's Returnings quartet and is part of the trio that recorded Strands. The cover art on Strands is a spin on the cover art on Returnings. Giddy yet?

The third member of the Strands lineup is percussionist Marilyn Mazur. All three musicians are Danish or part-Danish and know each other well. The album was recorded live at the Danish Radio Concert Hall in early 2023 (see the video below). Walking out together onto the stage "felt like a homecoming," says Bro.

Note that despite all but one track (Mikkelborg's "Youth") being written or co-written by Bro, and his relationship with some of the material going back to 2013, when he recorded Gefion, the three musicians receive equal billing on Strands. There is no leader and definitely no showboating. Spacious and unhurried—most of the tracks come in around the eight-minute mark—the album features Mikkelborg and Bro exploring each tune in turn, with Mazur playing a largely supportive, albeit glittering, role. The performance is generally sotto voce and gentle, only reaching a degree of intensity on "Returnings," co-written by Mikkelborg and Bro, with its distorted guitar and high-register trumpet. Strands is an album the listener has to lean into—and the effort is rewarded.