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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. The Door |
| 2. Stavanger |
| 3. Cologne Blues |
| 4. October |
| 5. December |
| 6. Williamsburg |
| 7. Fly |
| 8. Porvoo |
Product Description
The Guardian, (John Fordham), May 30, 2008
(4 stars) His silky, unbrasslike sound is ideally suited to this undulating groove-landscape...Balke helps give the music a collective fluency.
(4 stars) Instrumental music that's almost poetic in its construction...One you'll listen to on repeat to fathom its subtle meanings.
A quartet album of understated beauty...where the solos and joint improvisations develop organically. It's deceptively simple music.
(4 stars) Instrumental music that's almost poetic in its construction...One you'll listen to on repeat to fathom its subtle meanings.
A quartet album of understated beauty...where the solos and joint improvisations develop organically. It's deceptively simple music.
Album Description
Mathias Eick, 28 years old, is a musician on the rise. Last year he won the International Jazz Award for New Talent of the International Association of Jazz Educators. For ten years he's been a member of the cult between-the-genres band Jaga Jazzist. For ECM he has recorded with Jacob Young (Evening Falls, Sideways), Iro Haarla (Northbound), and Manu Katché (Playground). As front-line soloist of the Katché band he is playing 70 concerts in 2008. Eick has performed with musicians of many styles, from Chick Corea and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra to Norwegian psychedelic rock band Motorpsycho.
'The Door' is his first leader album and a fine showcase for his writing and his musicianship - his exceptional trumpet playing, but also his multi-instrumentalism: he's heard here also on guitar and vibraphone. As a trumpeter Eick has absorbed many influences - he cites Miles, Clifford Brown, Kenny Wheeler, Tomasz Stanko, Arve Henriksen and Nils Petter Molvær as inspirations - and shaped his own language, which incorporates the history of the modern trumpet.
Eick has assembled a top flight band for 'The Door'. Pianist Jon Balke is in tremendous form, always finding something fresh to intonate, consistently surprising and imaginative both on acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes. Balke's ECM history goes back 30 years, and recent CDs with the Magnetic North Orchestra and his solo 'Book of Velocities' have been acclaimed. Drummer Audun Kleive also has deep ECM roots - with Terje Rypdal's 'Chasers', Charles Lloyd's touring quartet and with Marilyn Mazur. He works well with bassist Audun Erlien, known to ECM aficionados for Molvaer's 'Solid Ether'. Guest Stian Carstensen, previously on ECM playing accordion on Trygve Seim's 'Different Rivers', is one of very few jazz artists to explore the potential of the pedal steel guitar, and also has his own fan base, largely from his popular band Farmers Market.
Personnel:
Mathias Eick - (trumpet, guitar, vibraphone), Jon Balke - (piano, electric piano), Audun Kleive - (drums, percussion), Audun Erlien - (electric bass, guitar), Stian Carstensen - (pedal steel guitar)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
After appearing on four recordings in the last few years, "The Door" opens what will hopefully be a long career for Norwegian trumpeter Eick as a bandleader on ECM. If there is nothing revolutionary in the eight tracks then the appeal consists in the fact that none of the tracks is less than excellent, the quality of the production highlights all the musicians' mastery of their respective instruments and, even if he does not sing with the purity and richness of Rava or yet have the range of Stanko, Eick is a trumpeter worthy of comparison with these two greats.
The album "The Door" begins brilliantly with the track of the same name. A few strums of tasteful guitar (which is sparingly deployed on only a handful of tracks) ushers a bright and breezy start before Eick's incessantly melodic trumpet creates a tone at once upbeat and yet slightly doleful as the track builds over eight minutes showcasing the fantastic piano playing of Jon Balke. The second track "Stavanger" is the wildest and most adventurous number; a worthy tribute to the European city of culture and is the most interesting of the eight compositions. It begins with jerky stop-start funk, not unlike Talking Heads at their most adventurous, Eick alternating beautiful melodic phrases with shrill stabs of sound. 5 minutes in Balke's keyboard brings to mind the recent release of Nik Bartsch`s Ronin as the track builds in intensity and sound.
Thereafter, EIck and his cohorts prove to be equally adept at the more upbeat numbers (such as Williamburg) and the ballads (the appropriately autumnal and wintry "October" and "December" and "Cologne Blues" whose bluesy feel is aided by Stian Carstensen's guest pedal steel guitar). The forty eight minutes or so of the album pass quickly and it invites repeated playing to bask in its feel and appreciate the sheer quality on display. Highly recommended.
The album "The Door" begins brilliantly with the track of the same name. A few strums of tasteful guitar (which is sparingly deployed on only a handful of tracks) ushers a bright and breezy start before Eick's incessantly melodic trumpet creates a tone at once upbeat and yet slightly doleful as the track builds over eight minutes showcasing the fantastic piano playing of Jon Balke. The second track "Stavanger" is the wildest and most adventurous number; a worthy tribute to the European city of culture and is the most interesting of the eight compositions. It begins with jerky stop-start funk, not unlike Talking Heads at their most adventurous, Eick alternating beautiful melodic phrases with shrill stabs of sound. 5 minutes in Balke's keyboard brings to mind the recent release of Nik Bartsch`s Ronin as the track builds in intensity and sound.
Thereafter, EIck and his cohorts prove to be equally adept at the more upbeat numbers (such as Williamburg) and the ballads (the appropriately autumnal and wintry "October" and "December" and "Cologne Blues" whose bluesy feel is aided by Stian Carstensen's guest pedal steel guitar). The forty eight minutes or so of the album pass quickly and it invites repeated playing to bask in its feel and appreciate the sheer quality on display. Highly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I bought this after it was recommended that I might like it! This a great CD. I'd not heard of Mathias Eick before. Like all ECM recordings this is beautifully produced. There are haunting melodies with some delightful piano backingto the lead of Eick on trumpet, guitar and vibraphone. If you like the jazz that has been coming out of the Scandanavian countries you will love this cd. Nothing too challenging to listento; more meditative in the ECM way.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The other reviews make this sound a bit of a wash, but I have played this about eight times now and it still keeps getting better. The first track starts to take flight about midway through and there are excellent tunes after it. Interplay with drums and piano excellent throughout. Its a slow burner perhaps but the pace is varied and at 49 mins does not overstay its welcome or have lots of padding
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
a let-down
I'm a great fan on some of Eick's other ECM appearences as a sideman and had high hopes for this, his first ECM as a leader. Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2008 by G. Smith
sheer joy
I have had this cd for a week now and cant stop playing it.Ive never heard of Mathias Eick before but what a find to my collection. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2008 by Mr. J. Hodgson
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