Kjetil Mulelid Trio – And Now

It’s been a few years since Norwegian pianist Kjetil Mulelid expressed himself in the trio format with bass and drums.

And now he’s back with a new bassist, after eight years and three albums with an unchanged line-up. And it’s fair to say that this newcomer brings a welcome atmosphere to the pianist and drummer, whose woody solidity is in perfect harmony with the leader’s lyricism.

Mulelid‘s piano playing is very voluble, and his sumptuous touch works wonders on his own compositions, all of which possess a heady charm. We sense that the thirty-something pianist cultivates a vein in which the pleasure of playing with compatriots in total empathy with him is predominant.

It’s a fluid three-way dialogue that develops track after track, with particular attention paid to the sound of the three instruments, which together produce a convincing group sound. The pianist makes frequent use of harmonic and rhythmic ostinatos in the left hand, onto which the right grafts small, sometimes repetitive melodic cells of great clarity.

Rune Nergaard‘s bass and Andreas Winther‘s drums accompany this approach in a way that is both subtle and dynamic, sometimes giving the impression of waves of sound that swell or diminish with a confounding naturalness. Kjetil Mulelid offers us a very personal vision of the trio, and we sense that his inspiration comes in part from Protestant hymns, which are one of the substrates of Scandinavian music of all styles.

So, there’s a spiritual dimension to this music, and it’s fair to say that the three instrumentalists expose their souls in a way that’s both modest and sincere.

A fine jazz piano record, then, by a trio that has succeeded in forging its own personality in a context where formations of this type abound on both sides of the Atlantic.