Effortlessly navigating between folk-inspired melodies and open drift, the Norwegian duo of saxophonist Trygve Seim and accordionist Frode Haltli returns with ‘Our Time’, their second collaborative release following their 2008 debut ‘Yeraz.’ The duo exhibits a sharp-eared empathy for diverse, world-inspired sounds, infusing each track with unique energy and churning detail, all while maintaining their characteristically lyrical approach. […] Having played together for nearly a quarter of a century, Seim and Haltli’s deep musical connection is evident in their well-versed exploration of texture and melody. ‘Our Time’ is a work that may leave some purists of sound sighing with pleasure, a testament to the depth of their artistic expression.
Filipe Freitas, Jazztrail
In a musical association that has spanned just short of a quarter of a century, Trygve Seim and Frode Haltli have conjured up sounds that encompass the history of their respective instruments while performing music that embraces traditional folk songs from around the world and freely improvised music. It is this instinctive understanding of the music and of each other’s playing that allows a sense of freedom to come into play and the duo relish in taking chances and exploring their repertoire from every possible angle. […] The marvel in this most intimate of musical setting is the close rapport and empathy between Haltli’s accordion that seemingly brings a limitless array of textures and soundscapes that Seim’s soprano and tenor saxophones accept as a means to elaborate both melodic and thematic improvisations. […] Another beautiful album that brings together the past and present in a programme in which melody and open communication is the order of the day.
Nick Lea, Jazz Views
Eine traumwandlerische Sammiung von freien Improvisationen und eigenen Stücken, sowie, mit Bedacht ausgewählt, unter die Haut gehende Versionen ferner Folksongs. Mir erscheinen diese schwebend anmutenden Dialoge zeitgenössischen Klageliedern nahe zu kommen, in ihrer mitunter schlicht schmerzhaften Schönheit.
Michael Engelbrecht, Deutschlandfunk
It’s a beautiful, often beguiling instrumental set — recorded in Himmelfahrtskirche church in Munich. The two Norwegians conjure a far wider array of sounds and emotions than you might expect from just two instruments. Opener ‚Du, mi tid‘ is all dark textures with Seim’s saxophone work reminding me of John Surman, while the eight-minute Improvisation ‚No. 1/Fanfare‘ is a funereal, vaguely unsettling piece that finds Seim creating lonesome whale-like sounds. […] The haunting ‚Elegi‘ closes another inspired release from ECM Records.
Ian Sinclair, Morning Star
Trygve Seim est le plus doux, le plus attentif des musiciens. Ces huit titres à la beauté crépusculaire et spirituelle ont été enregistrés à Munich, dans l’église de l’Ascension, un lieu qui se prête parfaitement au respect naturel que les deux hommes se vouent. Doux, magnifique!
Yves Tassin, Jazzmania
Tout est matière à laisser filer leurs doigts et leurs idées, au gré de fertiles improvisations qui jamais ne perdent le fragile fil d’une mélodie mais toujours tracent une poésie sonore hors des contingences de l’actualité.
Jacques Denis, Libération
Qui il livello globale del disco, la sua compattezza, è eccellente, il clima estremamente concentrato, a tratti scuro (fisiologicamente soprattutto quando Seim passa al tenore), ne fa gu- stare ogni passaggio con sapienza e quasi complicità, naturalmente salvo che non ci si aspetti da ogni ‘prodotto’ di più o meno diretta emanazione jazzistica che ci fac- cia battere il piede o esprima doti strumentali fuori dal comune.
Alberto Bazzurro, Musica Jazz
Mit ‘Our Time’ erscheint ihr drittes Album, das so sehr aus einem Guß wirkt, als lausche man einem einzigen großen Stück, wobei drei der faszinierendsten komplett improvisiert sind, wie das Booklet verrät. Die Aufnahme vom Juni 2023 aus der Münchener Himmelfahrtskirche verleiht Trygve Seims unvergleichlichem Ton eine zusätzliche Dimension: Ist das zu Beginn wirklich ein Saxofon? Oder eine obskure Oboe? Wie hier jenseits der Kategorien, im festen Glauben an die Intuition miteinander kommuniziert wird, verweist auf eine lange intensive Vorarbeit. Übrigens, wie bei Alben mit Dino Saluzzi oder Gianni Coscia lässt die Mikrofonierung, die Manfred Eicher vornimmt, das Besondere am Akkordeon bzw. Bandoneon optimal hervorkommen. Die Wellen der Poesie, die von ‘Our Time’ ausgehen, sind nicht nur etwas für Yoga-Praktizierende.
Karl Lippegaus, Fono Forum
This set mixes improvised and composed material, a Ukrainian lullaby, a North Indian traditional piece and an interpretation of Stravinsky’s ‘Les Cinq Doigts No 5’ alongside three pieces from the duo and four freely improvised pieces. […] As ever with Seim, the sound his breath makes as it passes through his tenor or soprano saxophone is as important as the finished note, giving him a particularly personal sonic tone, matched equally by the breathy accordion that, on ‘Improvisation No 1’, almost dances with glee before reverting to grunting accompaniment. In places, euphoric, elsewhere melancholic and dreamy, this is a set of pure beauty, of lyrical tunes and fluid conversations, and, above all, of striking, freewheeling originality.
Simon Adams, Jazz Journal
Das Album, aufgenommen 2023 in der Himmelfahrtskirche in München und produziert von Manfred Eicher, umfasst insgesamt acht Stücke und vereint darin die Stimmen der zwei Ausnahmemusiker zu einem magischen Zirkel aus Eigenkompositionen, Improvisationen und neuen Interpretationen traditioneller Lieder aus der Ukraine und Nordindien. Das Album in der Summe wirkt wie aus der Zeit gefallen. An kaum einer Stelle dockt es an an die Außenwelt. Stattdessen trägt die Musik einen raus aus dieser und rein in eine andere Sphäre. Die Mittel sind einfach, aber umso wirkungsvoller. Trygve Seim und Frode Haltli spielen und improvisieren mit Bedacht, wählen ihrer wenigen Töne weise und weben ihre Bögen elegant in- und umeinander. Der Fokus und die Hingabe, mit der sie sich in Kompositionen wie zum Beispiel dem stimmungsvollen ‘Arabian Tango’, dem melancholischen ‘Oy Khodyt‘ Son, Kolo Vikon’ oder dem festlichen ‘Elegie’ bewegen, sind absolut mitreißend. ‘Our Time’ ist ein Kleinod der stillen Töne und großen Gefühle. Eine tolle Platte.
Sebastian Meißner, Sounds & Books
‘Our Time’, questo il titolo del nuovo lavoro del duo norvegese, ritrova la magia dei lavori da solisti dei due musicisti e se ne discosta insieme, alla ricerca di un magnetismo in cui la visionarietà dell’improvvisazione è sempre ancorata a un bordone popolare, il ‘canto’ spirituale si arrotola su sé stesso e diventa dolore, il paesaggio è quello brullo e incombente della ‘trilogia del silenzio di Dio’ di Igmar Bergman. Eppure è una musica che accarezza in un contrasto di luce e ombra, di tranquillità d’animo e interiori deflagrazioni, anche quando, nei rari momenti quasi giocosi che rievocano ‘Les Cinq Doigts No.5’ di stravinskyana memoria oppure nelle appassionate visioni di Arabian Tango, sembra suonare una carica lieve, come un’evocazione dalla grazia infantile.
Raffello Carabini, Spettakolo
Seim, again on soprano and tenor saxes, has one of the most distinctive and immediately recognisable sounds in jazz today – full, smooth, crystalline, now breathily sensuous, now powerfully keening – while Haltli, a true virtuoso equally at home in contemporary classical and experimental music as he is with jazz, folk and more popular forms, seems to be able to produce whatever sound he wants out of the accordion. The instrument is famously versatile, but Haltli constantly manages to surprise and delight; Seim too makes the most of whichever sax he is playing, so that ‘Our Time’, like ‘Yeraz’, is considerably richer – in terms of tone, timbre, texture, dynamics and colour – than many might expect from an album of duets for sax and accordion. It’s remarkably rich in other ways, too. For one thing, it embraces a wide range of styles and influences. The opening track – ‘Du, mi tid’ (in English, ‘You, my time’) is a lovely, stately Haltli composition which already appeared on his album ‘Avant Folk – Triptyk’. ‘Fanfare’ is a simple Seim melody which allows for sufficiently ample embellishment to turn up twice in pleasingly different versions. The title of ‘Arabian Tango’ hints at its intriguing mixed origins (let’s not forget that the Finns claim that dance form, often deemed Argentinian, as their own). There is a Ukrainian lullaby, a North Indian folk song, and a brief piece by Stravinsky. What’s more, four of these pieces are preceded by others explicitly labelled as improvisations which, as it were, provide food for thought when the compositions begin. Then again, such is the musical invention at work during the exploration of the composed pieces that it’s actually quite hard, sometimes, to tell where the improvisation starts and stops. Likewise, Haltli and Seim display such mutual musical empathy that their very different instruments occasionally appear even to merge and become one. […] Such beauty will surely make this one of my albums of the year.
Geoff Andrew, Notes & Observations
Une espèce de magie qui opère. Les sonorités particulières, l’entrecroisement des timbres et des textures, les mélodies en contrepoint, le mélange de sacré et de profane, les improvisations venues du jazz… Tout cela concourt au mystère et à la beauté de ces musiques venues de loin dans le temps mais qui fonctionnent toujours sur nos cœurs et nos esprits. Les musiques de Seim-Haltli sont de fragiles impros. Tout […] respire la poésie, la contemplation, la méditation. C’est beau. Faut-il dire quelque chose de plus?
Jean Claude Vantroyen, Le Soir
At times Seim and Haltli sound almost like two players of one instrument. Saxophone and accordion are both reed instruments driven by air, and Seim’s and Haltli’s phrases often seem to breathe together. Also, the saxophones’ pitches fit within the upper and lower limits of the accordion, and the feeling of oneness is further abetted by Seim’s soft and breathy delivery, and how the accordion spreads across the stereo panorama with the saxophone somewhere in the middle. […] The album was recorded in the Himmelfahrtskirche (‘Church of the Ascension’) in Munich, a church with a magnificent organ with 35 registers (2377 pipes) that was built in 1994. The church has often been used to record small and mid-sized ensembles, due to its favourable acoustics and quiet location. But there’s a poetic beauty about this conversational set of duets being played in the shadow of a pipe organ, an instrument that (like the saxophones and accordion) produces sound by blowing air through pipes and over reeds.
Julian Maynard-Smith, UK Jazz News
Seims Saxofon klingt in den Improvisationen oft weich und exotisch, manchmal ruppig und halbrecherisch balancierend, zuweilen geradezu ätherisch, aber immer ist es letztlich der Parameter des Melodischen, auf den er sich verlässt. Haltlis Akkordeon breitet ein Klangspektrum aus, dem man zuweilen erstaunt lauscht, weil man so etwas bis dato nie mit einem Akkordeon in Verbindung gebracht hat. Über allem wölbt sich ein radikal unkommerzieller, weiter Himmel von Folklore, der ukrainische, fernöstliche oder arabische Elemente bruchlos mit nordischen verbindet und unter dem raffinierte komponierte Passagen zu Spielanlässen oder Übergangsphänomenen fragmentiert werden, in denen sich zweifach komplexe Improvisationen entfalten.
Hans-Jürgen Linke, Frankfurter Rundschau
