Music
Espen Eriksen Trio
Jazz Bar, Edinburgh
Rob Adams
Four stars
HIS group’s initials would make it very easy for Norwegian pianist Espen Eriksen’s trio to slip into conversations the way its Swedish counterpart E.S.T. did on its arrival onto the international jazz scene, and there are facets of its music and arrangements also that invite comparisons with the Swedes, not least the sonic variety and imaginative detail that drummer Andreas Bye produces with brushes, sticks, beaters and fingers.
READ MORE: Music review: RSNO, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
If the association helps to gain Eriksen more listeners, then that will be no bad thing. Just as long as audiences don’t expect a clone, because the Oslo-based pianist has a style that, as the two sets here revealed, puts his own stamp on the piano, bass and drums format. There are familiar Nordic elements, a certain austerity in the pared-down melodies and a tendency towards ultra-patient development in his improvisations, but the wit and touch and presently the liking for dramatic build-ups strike me as very personal.
READ MORE: Music review: RSNO, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Some of Eriksen’s compositions have a song-without-words quality. The bouncy On the Jar might have sprung from a Mussel Shoals soul session, with bassist Tormod Jenset adding a typically underplayed presence as Eriksen dampened the piano strings in his prelude to a fluent, exploratory solo, and On the Sea, with its hand-clapping sections, uses pop simplicity en route to a stirringly intense resolution. The only non-original, two pieces with guesting, locally-based guitarist, Haftor Medbøe aside, was another treat: We Don’t Need Another Hero re-interpreted far from Tina Turner’s overwrought style and as involving in its understated way as the later, more aerated and joyous Anthem and the brilliantly worked, gathering ensemble storm of Brian.
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