Late Junction broadcaster Fiona Talkington’s enthusiasm for Norwegian percussionist Thomas Strønen led to this commission for him to invent a new Norway/UK lineup and compose for it. Thus British pianist Kit Downes and his improv/classical cello partner Lucy Railton join five Norwegians for an unusual brew of jazz piano, northern-European laments, gamelan and African-influenced grooves from three percussionists. Downes’s fluent avant-swing, alongside Strønen and bassist Ole Morten Vågan, creates the impression of a jazz piano trio finding itself in a room with an ethereal strings-and-drums chamber group, and though some of it is slow and impressionistic, it’s often jazzy and songlike, too. There are warmly acoustic, all-percussion interludes, tone-bending violin passages, and, on the title track, a rocking folk melody and Jarrettish improv against muscular, tone-rich drumming. If crossover means anything, this is a fascinating example.
