The Door
The young Norwegian trumpet player Mathias Eick can say a lot with a little. You won’t hear many fast and flashy runs on *The Door*; what you get are long, often breathy brass tones that fill the room with drama and sentiment. This 2008 release is a low-key, highly detailed affair. The band — Eick, pianist Jon Balke, drummer Audun Kleive, and bassist Audun Erlien — create a crystalline group sound that fits in well with the classic ECM aesthetic. (Stian Carstensen contributes nuanced and unusual pedal steel guitar on “Cologne Blues,” “October,” and “December.”) Balke is a particularly striking instrumentalist and Kleive is continually inventive whether laying down a subtle pulse or crafting a cloud of exquisite cymbal hiss. “Cologne Blues” evokes the lyricism of 1950s Miles Davis and Beethoven’s piano music while “Williamsburg” brings to mind chamber music played with jazz looseness and hints of pop grandeur. Every track has plenty of space and each artist adds distinctive brushstrokes to these lovely sonic paintings. Eick has worked with Jaga Jazzist and a variety of other groups, but this is his first solo album: it’s an impressive one.
It seems strange that The Door on ECM is 29-year-old trumpeter/composer Mathias Eick's debut album as a bandleader.