The Touch of Time (ECM)
Arve Henriksen
Released January 2024
All About Jazz Best Jazz Albums of 2024
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About:
Arve Henriksen and Harmen Fraanje are at the helm of the contemporary improvised scene on their respective instruments and Touch of Time, the duo’s debut, is exemplary of their uncanny sensibility for each other’s timbre, phrasing and melodic approach. A striking musical rapport between the Norwegian trumpeter and Dutch pianist is palpable throughout these quietly lyrical investigations. In both freely improvised forms and carefully wrought themes, their instruments connect gracefully, picking up and finishing each other’s sentences.
Initiated in light of ECM’s 50th anniversary celebrations at the 2019 Transition Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands, where the duo first met and performed a captivating improvised set, the collaboration between Harmen and Arve has since morphed into a fruitful partnership, where the players are able to riff off each other’s ideas seamlessly and in-the-moment. Harmen: “With Arve, from the beginning it felt so easy to find each other in the music, to follow the flow, to feel the direction of the melody, and to sense the emerging harmonies. After that very first concert we immediately realized we should continue performing together – and a new duo was born.”
Where that first occasion was freely improvised, on Touch of Time the duo also introduces prepared melodies and progressions into the mix, as extended vehicles for the musicians’ soft-spoken interplay. “Redream”, “What All This Is” and the title track are such frameworks – penned by Harmen – and point to the contemplative, concentrated character of the album, revealing both chorale-like cadences and stream-of-consciousness melodic development.
Arve and Harmen: “We consider Touch of Time to be exactly where we meet in music. Although there are solid structures within these pieces, we form the material very freely, as a holistic process, rather than a static approach borne from preconception.” The music was shaped together with Manfred Eicher, who produced the album, recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano in early 2023.
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Harmen Fraanje, born in Roosendaal, Netherlands in 1976, has appeared on ECM as part of Mats Eilertsen’s Rubicon band as well as the bassist’s trio recording And then Comes The Night. Besides his participation in Eilertsen’s groups, Fraanje is part of the trio Reijseger Fraanje Sylla and since 2019 frequently collaborates with Arve Henriksen.
Arve Henriksen was born in Stranda, Norway in 1968 and began playing and recording internationally in 1989. He first recorded for ECM with Christian Wallumrød trio on No Birch (1998) and has since regularly appeared on the label as both sideman and leader, including on albums by Tigran Hamsyan, Jon Balke, Trygve Seim, Arild Andersen, Sinikka Langeland and Frode Hailti. Down Beat called his ECM leader-date Cartography (2010) “ethereal ambient music created with a painterly touch and marked by a fine melodic sensibility”. Most recently, Henriksen could be heard alongside Jakob Bro and Jorge Rossy on Uma Elmo (2022).
Track Listing:
1. Melancholia (Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje) 03:58
2. The Beauty Of Sundays (Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje) 03:29
3. Redream (Harmen Fraanje) 08:45
4. The Dark Light (Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje) 04:00
5. What All This Is (Harmen Fraanje) 03:51
6. Mirror Images (Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje) 02:48
7. Touch Of Time (Harmen Fraanje) 03:18
8. Winter Haze (Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje) 01:10
9. Red And Black (Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje) 02:39
10. Passing On The Past (Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje) 04:13
Personnel:
Arve Henriksen: trumpet, electronics
Harmen Fraanje: piano
Recorded January 2023, Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, by Stefano Amerio
Cover Photo: Max Franosch
Design: Sascha Kleis
Produced by Manfred Eicher
Review:
Nordic trumpeter Arve Henriksen has played jazz, metal, folk, eclectic world music—with a nod to Japanese flute—and more. That caused at least one DJ to tell Henriksen “you are the musical chameleon.” He will politely acknowledge that statement but has consistently returned to his chosen ground zero of ambient jazz dominated by subtle improvisation. When Henriksen started playing in the ’80s, he often collaborated with other musicians based, like him, in Norway. Since he began recording at the turn of the century, he has increasingly branched out by working and recording with artists from other parts of Europe and from America. For example, his version of Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain from the mid-2000s found him working with renowned composer, arranger and orchestra leader Maria Schneider. When asked about the session, she pointed out that Henriksen has a “gorgeous sound that is unique in the world of trumpet.” She went on to say “Arve’s tone transcends the instrument. Quite simply, there’s nothing like it.”
Beyond trumpet, Henriksen is often credited with ‘electronics’ and has occasionally sung wordless vocalizing which can sound deceptively like a trumpet. For his latest ECM release, Touch of Time, he teamed up with Harmen Fraanje, the innovative Dutch pianist. No-one else participated this time around, that’s it. The duo decided to leave behind the potential organic heartbeat of drums and bass or any other instruments.
All compositions are originals and the disc unspools new-age styled musings as it progresses. The pair begin by conjuring up windswept moods with the whispering tones of “Melancholia.” It is as if Henriksen’s plaintive horn is announcing the arrival of an ancient wooden ship which is drifting and attempting to emerge from a murky, misty fog. As for pianist Fraanje, he reverently interacts with Henriksen by presenting delicate cascades of celestial droplets. Next up, Fraanje initially leads the way on the dreamy “The Beauty of Sundays” while Henriksen pensively emerges like a soothing, warming sunrise. Fraanje again leads the way on the extended “Redream” and, after Henriksen’s understated arrival, they slip into a relaxed give-and-take musical dialogue which continues with other pieces such as the delicately crafted “The Dark Light,” “What All This Is,” “Winter Haze” and others. “Mirror Images,” is a bit different as they take a slightly darker journey and dip into a more mysterious pool featuring a breathy trumpet. Throughout Touch of Time, Henriksen and Fraaje repeatedly focus on sculpting moody landscapes. There is a soothing consistency but that also means bold solos or catchy melodies are left behind this time around. Many pieces teasingly fade and evaporate instead of simply ending. Also, with a total running time of forty minutes, the duo offers just the right length and never overstays its welcome. As the last notes recede, the artists ultimately leave listeners wondering and contemplating.
Scott Gudell (All About Jazz)
