Norway’s jazz scene often sits happily out on its own limb – the native sound palette swirling with folkloric flourishes and breathy lyricism. Thus, it’s to burgeoning piano talent Kjetil Mulelid’s credit that he’s forged an intuitive link to more conventional sounds, making space for solos and collective improvisation on this wonderfully open-hearted set.

His third album to date, you know you’re doing something right when you’ve got Jaga Jazzist mainman Lars Horntveth on shimmering lap steel on a clutch of tracks; add to that the cream of the trumpet crop with Henriksen and Eick blowing up a storm, plus a searing soprano solo from Martin Myhre Olsen on the broiling ‘Heroes’ and it’s clear the keyboardist is an inspirational presence.

Having won plaudits for his 2021 debut solo album, simply titled Piano, here it’s a unified group sound that’s the focus on Agoja (apparently the first word uttered by his baby son).

With the shifting cast of musicians infusing each track with textural variety, this is large-ensemble jazz that breathes to its own natural rhythms. There are surprises too, such as NYC-based vibist Sasha Berliner’s appearance on ‘Waiting Song’, spiking the music with her own finely wrought lines, while the preceding ‘A Prayer For Peace’ rolls with an impassioned rubato feel, that allows the tenor cries of Trygve Seim and alto of Signe Emmeluth to rage and then melt into sadness.

Couple this to a softly pulsing groove sensibility on opener ‘Alone’ or the spaced grandeur of closer ‘Kingdom, Slowly Disappearing’ (with delicious, thunked, low piano notes) and one gets the feeling Mulelid has with this album created a modern Nordic masterpiece.