Arve Henriksen Trumpet, Voice, Electronics
Harmen Fraanje Piano, Electronics
about
Arve Henriksen and Harmen Fraanje are at the helm of the contemporary improvised scene on their respective instruments and Touch of Time, the duo’s debut, is exemplary of their uncanny sensibility for each other’s timbre, phrasing and melodic approach. A striking musical rapport between the Norwegian trumpeter and Dutch pianist is palpable throughout these quietly lyrical investigations. In both freely improvised forms and carefully wrought themes, their instruments connect gracefully, picking up and finishing each other’s sentences.
Initiated in light of ECM’s 50th anniversary celebrations at the 2019 Transition Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands, where the duo first met and performed a captivating improvised set, the collaboration between Harmen and Arve has since morphed into a fruitful partnership, where the players are able to riff off each other’s ideas seamlessly and in-the-moment. Harmen: “With Arve, from the beginning it felt so easy to find each other in the music, to follow the flow, to feel the direction of the melody, and to sense the emerging harmonies. After that very first concert we immediately realized we should continue performing together – and a new duo was born.”
Where that first occasion was freely improvised, on Touch of Time the duo also introduces prepared melodies and progressions into the mix, as extended vehicles for the musicians’ soft-spoken interplay. “Redream”, “What All This Is” and the title track are such frameworks – penned by Harmen – and point to the contemplative, concentrated character of the album, revealing both chorale-like cadences and stream-of-consciousness melodic development.
Arve and Harmen: “We consider Touch of Time to be exactly where we meet in music. Although there are solid structures within these pieces, we form the material very freely, as a holistic process, rather than a static approach borne from preconception.” The music was shaped together with Manfred Eicher, who produced the album, recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano in early 2023.
reviews
The expanding mountain-high, river-deep murmur of Harmen Fraanje and Arve Henriksen enchanted the audience’s souls.
Beyond beyond!
Henning Bolte
Beyond beyond!
Henning Bolte
Two more musically like-minded souls would be difficult to find, as both musicians operate on the same introspective, otherworldly wavelenght. […] Hearing ‘Touch of Time’ is like being invited into a stranger’s lucid dream, enveloped with beauty.
Michael Toland, Big Takeover (US)
Michael Toland, Big Takeover (US)
Relentlessly, the ECM label continues its quest for the ‘most beautiful sound after silence,’ as stated by the motto of the house led by Manfred Eicher. Mission accomplished with this delicate ‘Touch of Time.’ […] Melodic sweetness, lyricism, and textures or rare purity.
Jean-Pierre Vidal, Jazzmagazine (FR)
Jean-Pierre Vidal, Jazzmagazine (FR)
From the first to the last note, fantastically beautiful.
Christoph Giese, NRW Jazz (GER)
C’est l’espace qui compte ici…C’est d’une élégance rare, c’est juste, sans esbroufe, sans ostentation, sans démonstration. Simplement deux âmes qui s’absorbent et se confondent dans la musiques…Et c’est sublime.
Le Soir (BE)
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