Palle Mikkelborg
Jakob Bro
Marilyn Mazur
Strands

Palle Mikkelborg trumpet, flugelhorn
Jakob Bro guitar
Marilyn Mazur percussion
Recorded live at the Danish Radio Concert Hall
Copenhagen, February 2023
Engineer: Thomas Vang
Cover photo: Jan Kricke
An ECM Production
Release date: November 24, 2023

Recorded in February 2023 at the Danish Radio Concert Hall, this live performance convenes trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, guitarist Jakob Bro, and percussionist Marilyn Mazur in what Bro has described as a “homecoming.” The trio’s free exploration of original material leaves the faintest of fingerprints on the air, so all we are left with are impressions, memories, and instincts to hold on to. And yet, for all their ephemerality, they are undeniably indelible.

Bro contributes most of the tunes, although to call them that risks undermining the quasi-physical stretching each undergoes before it coalesces into something recognizable. All the while, there is something familiar about even the most abstract passages of examination. The first proof of this theorem is Bro’s “Gefion,” an eponymous nod to his ECM leader debut. It opens with echoing horn, sparkling percussion (including bowed metals for added shimmer), and a web of dreams strung across the night to catch as many falling stars as possible in the afterglow. “Oktober” waters the same seeds, unfolding as a piece of paper, each rectangle a scene waiting to be sketched in by the writing instruments of memory. Mikkelborg is like a ghost in the background while Mazur’s hand drums flutter in search of a body to house it. The feeling of stasis is so profound as to hold the listener suspended between materiality and immateriality. By contrast, “Returnings” (co-written by Mikkelborg and Bro) brings a more wrought-iron sound to bear. Speaking in the language of guttural distortion, while electronics flash through the foreground, it brings plenty of fuel to keep it burning. Mazur’s ritualistic beatings imbue an ancient charge, finishing in gossamer stretches of wisdom.

The title track and the concluding “Lyskaster” find their composer weaving his guitar into a hammock. Its gentle sway gives life to the dreams of his bandmates, melting into a swath of desert where forces not only align but also pass through each other. Between them is Mikkelborg’s “Youth.” Mazur’s understated fervency gives color, while Bro expands the view beyond the stage to reveal a world without borders.

Fans of Jon Hassell will find much to admire in this album, which, of course, has its own feel for texture and storytelling. A special document for fans of any of these three musicians, if not all.