Hyperboreal Trio got here by its identify actually. Danish alto saxophonist Signe Emmeluth and Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten have each lived within the far-northern metropolis of Trondheim, Norway, and that’s the place the they first convened with Argentine-born, Berlin-based drummer Axel Filip. However the music that they improvise is, in its personal idiosyncratic style, removed from chill.
Whereas the 2 Scandinavians are well-known to one another from numerous gigs and shared membership in bands, it was Filip who clinched this mix. Filip had met Håker Flaten and Emmeluth individually, and the trio first convened in Trondheim’s Northern Studio for the session that yielded this album. It doesn’t take lengthy to listen to why the threesome has taken on a life past that encounter. Whereas every musician has a powerful character and private sound, their collective dynamic additionally stands aside from what every of them does elsewhere.
The acoustic outfit sounds extremely charged all through Hyperboreal Trio, however not in a traditional free-jazz style. On “Stone Chilly” and “Ahuyentado,” Emmeluth, Håker Flaten and Filip apply a staccato assault, which provides as much as a layered whirlwind of dot-dash alerts. “Come Nearer” is made up of complementary-but-separate actions, every participant in their very own nook. Even when Emmeluth fuses atomic components into scraps of melody, the opposite two tug at her enjoying with interventions that distort the output’s form with out letting it fly aside.
The inventiveness of this poised and risky music by no means flags. It’s straightforward to see why Emmeluth, Håker Flaten and Filip have taken this album’s identify as their very own and commenced gigging round Europe. [Relative Pitch]
—Invoice Meyer
