Jakob Bro – Gefion

Gefion, named for the Norse goddess associated with ploughing, prophecy and premonition, is the ECM leader debut of Danish guitarist Jakob Bro. Bro first recorded for ECM with Paul Motian on Garden of Eden in 2004, followed by Tomasz Stanko’s Dark Eyes album of 2009. The guitarist’s feeling for melody, sound-colour and atmosphere served him well in those contexts, as it does here in the realization of his own free floating ballads and drifting, spacious-yet-focused pieces. “Lucidity is in the air when guitarist Jakob Bro plays,” the late Danish journalist Ib Skovgaard wrote. “His music transcends genres. It’s beyond categories, a personal music following a track which is consistent with Bro’s constant search for melodic clarity in the songs”.

Gefion was recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in November 2013 and produced by Manfred Eicher. It introduces a group with US bassist Thomas Morgan and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen, which has been a priority project for Jakob Bro in recent years. Bro views Thomas Morgan as a “soulmate in music”. As Craig Taborn once said of the bassist, nobody is more rigorous about holding onto the compositional fabric of a piece of music and honouring its intentions. In the stripped-to-essentials context of Gefion, the bassist is able to make his well-chosen notes say a great deal; Bro and Morgan thoughtfully explore the music together, buoyed and stimulated by the lapping waves of Jon Christensen’s drums and cymbals. Whether driving or detailing the music, Christensen plainly relishes the freedoms offered by the trio formation.

“‘Gefion’ is an important album […] Shards of folkish melody reveal themselves as the rhythm section swirls around and underneath – Morgan inserting his own LaFaro-worthy asides and occasionally keeping time, Christensen dusting the floor à la Motian […] In Bro, new listeners will identify Bill Frisell’s shimmery tone and textural gentility, but the comparisons end there. The younger guitarist homes in on atmosphere with an inesitiy approaching David Torn’s.” - Evan Haga, Jazz Times (Editor’s Pick)

“Bro has been developing a fascinating voice on his own. Here he reaches new heights on his quietly powerful ECM debut as a leader, which finds him in empathic connection with bassist Thomas Morgan and ECM mainstay Jon Christensen on drums. ‘Gefion’, named for a Norse goddess linked with prophecy and harvest, is meditative and mesmerizing, working its sonic approaches and musical strategies to painterly and poetic ends.” - Josef Woodard, Jazziz

Source: Press Release

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