Threnody: At The Gates is an emotive title that's matched with cover art depicting what you presume to be a refugee walking towards her uncertain fate. Recorded in Malmö in 2015, this studio album is subdivided into six tracks all labelled ‘Gate’ which run in non-numerical order, beginning with four and ending with seven, with no sign of three, five or six which I'd like to think might form the basis of a future release. Martin Küchen's heady 2013 record Hellstorm was also a reflection upon war, but where tracks titled ‘Sarajevo’ and ‘The Russia We Lost’ made the politics behind that music explicit, here the specifics have been left to our imagination – which is unsettled by the imagery and musically wooed by these single-mindedly fervent improvisations. The album rushes at you with an initial tumultuous implosion of activity. Küchen wrestles with a brainworm melodic tick that refuses to let him go as Berthling and Noble unleash protean forces underneath, and before too long Noble reaches inside the sound and a turnaround roar from his snare drum re-routes the energy and provides a floating landmark. ‘Gate 2’ introduces stylistic incongruity: a funky ‘second line’ marching rhythm from Noble's snare which Küchen's burping, cackling saxophone and Berthling's hectic tremolos meet head on and the improvisation eventually reaches a point of structural disintegration. Moments of repose emerge. Reaching out from the maelstrom, saxophone and bowed double-bass play aching, tender melodic arcs in unison; and elsewhere Küchen's saxophone bends fondly towards the harmonic overtones of Noble's ride cymbal. A prodigious meeting of minds.