Minco Eggersman, Theodoor Borger & Mathias Eick – UNIFONY (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 40:29 minutes | 649 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Butler Records
Minco Eggersman and Theodoor Borger started collaborating years ago. For this project they’re inviting guest musicians to find the pure essence of music with them. They invited Norwegian trumpet player Mathias Eick for their first album UNIFONY. Together, they wander off the beaten track and rediscover purity by experimenting. They don’t compose music based on musical notes but they’re using carefully crafted layered sounds instead. The album has been mixed by the British studio engineer Phill Brown. He has worked with a wide range of artists like Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, David Bowie & The Rolling Stones. To top it off, the album has been mastered by none other than 11x Grammy Award winning mastering engineer Bob Ludwig. He has worked with artists like Radiohead, Nirvana, Paul McCartney, Madonna and many, many others.
Read more
Mathias Eick – When We Leave (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:47 minutes | 673 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick’s expressive playing, which according to the New York Times radiates a “pristine yet penetrating tone”, is remarkably well complemented in the company of his gifted supporting players and fellow travelers. Violinist Hakon Aase, one of the outstanding improvisers of his generation, shadows the leader with lines that reflect a profound background in folk as well as jazz.
Drummers Helge Andeas Norbakken and Torstein Lofthus mirror their exchanges, as they interact with purring precision. Near the centre of the action, pianist Andras Ulvo and bass guitarist Audun Erlien ferry ideas between frontline and rhythm section and make statements of their own. On several tracks, the delicate swell of Stian Carstensen’s pedal steel guitar adds a dimension of mystery.
Read more
Mathias Eick – The Door (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:11 minutes | 906 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
Mathias Eick’s resumé includes work with musicians of many styles, from Chick Corea and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra to Norwegian psychedelic rock band Motorpsycho. A primary project in the last ten years has been the jazz/progressive rock ten-piece band Jaga Jazzist: Eick’s multi-instrumentalism has been an important part of that group’s sound and on The Door he is also heard on vibraphone and guitar as well as trumpet, as he puts it, whatever needs to be played. Eick has appeared on two ECM recordings with Norwegian-American guitarist Jacob Young, Evening Falls and Sideways, and on Finnish harpist/pianist/composer Iro Haarla’s Northbound. In 2007 he became a frontline soloist of Manu Katché’s band, appearing on the best-selling Playground…
Read more
Mathias Eick – Skala (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:41 minutes | 746 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick’s new album extends the concept and the panoramic sweep of his ECM debut “The Door” (recorded 2007). “It’s wider and bigger in all directions,” Eick says. “Skala” calls upon the services of more musicians – including, at times, two drummers – and there is more detail in the arrangements. What hasn’t changed is the emphasis on the lyrical soloist at the centre of the production. Eick’s elegant trumpet now has a larger space in which to sing.
“Skala” pools new and older compositions, all written by Mathias, and inspired, he says, by music from classical to pop. The title tune is one that the trumpeter says has been following him “for many years”, its network of inspirations including Sting’s 1993 song “Shape of My Heart”. “Edinburgh” was written in the Scottish city, but draws inspiration from Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and the plaintive cry of Jan Garbarek’s sax. Eick describes “June” as “a light and peaceful song, a reminiscence of summer days”. The piece incorporates the harp of classical player Sidsel Walstad, currently of the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra.
“Oslo”, the album’s most propulsive tune, is a “song of the city. It’s a groove-directed piece.” It also “brings the idea of the two drummers into play. It sets them loose.” The piece also includes significant contributions from keyboardist Morten Qvenild, best known for his work with singer Susanna Wallumrød. “Joni” is, of course, for Joni Mitchell, whose work Eick has long admired. “Biermann” is named after the Oslo house that Eick rents, a place once owned by German merchant J. F. Biermann, back in the 19th century. “The Day After” references the 1970s, and is influenced by sources as diverse as the Jarrett/Garbarek ‘Belonging’ collaboration and the pounding rock piano of Elton John. “Epilogue” develops “from the simple idea of softness meeting raw energy”, as Mathias’s tender trumpet soliloquy gives way to typhoon-strength drumming from Torstein Lofthus.
Read more
Mathias Eick – Ravensburg (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:13 minutes | 798 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
One of the pleasures of Mathias Eick s Midwest album was hearing his vaulting trumpet supported by violin, an instrumental combination further developed on Ravensburg. The new violinist in Eicks ensemble is Hakon Aase, one of the up-and-coming players of the new Norwegian scene, whom attentive ECM listeners will already know from his work with Thomas Stronens group. The core Eick road band is further shored up by the addition of Helge Andreas Norbakken, who interacts excitingly with fellow drummer Torstein Lofthus. Eick is in great form as a writer on this showing, deploying driving rhythm at the bottom end of his music and soaring melody at the top in this series of pieces which add up to a kind of collective family portrait. Ravensburg was recorded at Oslos Rainbow Studio in June 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher, and is issued on the eve of European tour.
Read more