HELGE LIEN TRIO - To The Little Radio

It's easy to tar Scandinavian jazz with the brush of ECM glacial frostiness and the almost fanatic avoidance of resolving any song on a II/V/I chord combination (I jest, I love ECM). This 2008 release from the Helge Lien trio from Norway, with its Gershwin opener 'S Wonderful is a wonderful collection of old and new standards reinterpreted that proves the exception is often the rule. With an intriguing tracklist spanning songs written in the 1920s onwards, this music has an internal current of longing and lyrical clarity that drifts over you like the distant scent of incense burning (music that makes me mix metaphors is usually good). It's incredibly well played - Lien has a technique to die for - but is always germane and subservient to the emotion he communicates. The drummer who uses his hands as much as his brushes or sticks on what sounds like a minimal set up is impeccable as is the bass player Frode Berg who also shines bright. The meditation Lien makes of Little Sunflower with its almost imperceptible long fade is a highlight along with the parred away ballads like Strayhorn's Chelsea Bridge, Porter's So In Love and Kern's Look For The Silver Lining as well as the hauntingly beautiful title track which all seem to balance on mounds of ash. Beautiful, brooding but mellifluous music. Exceptional.

Do you remember as a child dipping your hand into a cool pond or letting it drag in the lazy current of a stream and it felt like a new universe between your fingers?