This is a brawnier set than Danish guitarist Jakob Bro’s 2015 album Gefion, with the muscular touch of John Zorn drummer Joey Baron bringing a time-juggling drive to grooves that had been more ambiguous in the hands of his Bro predecessor Jon Christensen. For all the guitarist’s fondness for understatedly conversational north European jazz-making, this trio is a highly melodic and unpredictably dramatic outfit. The gently weaving Heroines is as open as a pop ballad in its ringing guitar line, solicitously escorted by Thomas Morgan’s supple bass and Baron’s patterings and cymbal tingles (Bro repeats it later as an unaccompanied solo) And the Paul Motian dedication PM Dream – a collective-improv adventure initiated by Motian admirer Baron – grippingly begins in palpitating long tones, bass urgings and snare-drum twitches before becoming metallic, electronic and intense. The gently radiant Shell Pink is another thoroughly catchy song-theme, and Bro sounds almost sax-like on the spacey Sisimiut. This is far from guitar-hero music, but it’s full of laid-back character.
