“Today some may see Nordic jazz or improvisation in the light of a certain long-term conventional notion of beauty: nature, the seasons, the large landscapes, the peace beyond the metropolis etc. I guess with this record, Nordic improvisation engages with something ‘other’, something else, within the complex reality of what it may mean to work and create in the North today.”

So says Danish drummer, Daniel Sommer, co-pilot of this second instalment of his critically acclaimed ‘Nordic Trilogy’, 2023’s As Time Passes featuring Arild Andersen and Rob Luft. Here Sommer’s in the rarefied company of impish Norwegian sonic genius/trumpeter Arve Henriksen (who’s given to outbursts of Tuvan throat singing or an angelic falsetto) and the deeply sonorous Swedish bassist Johannes Lundberg, who also produced this painterly, widescreen music. Improvised over the course of three separate sessions, these pieces feel simultaneously weighty and weightless.

Sommer’s tumbling drums guide and probe, such as when his brushes shape the fragile heartbeat pulse of ‘Beautiful Daisy’, or brew up a tsunami of pointillistic broken beats on the title track. Monophonic bass and trumpet frequently become gossamer layers, plangent harmonies form from Henriksen’s electronically harmonised horn or Lundberg’s wonderfully weighty bowing, to create micro symphonies within the trio, while quirky synth sounds flash around the periphery. Sounds & Sequences exemplifies heightened listening and ultra-responsive playing. It’s a melancholy electro acoustic soundtrack one imagines could be heard on the wind as it whistles down from Europe’s cold and beautiful north.