Liv Andrea Hauge – Døgnville

Sometimes meditative, sometimes playful, even danceable, the music of pianist Liv Andrea Hauge’s trio on this new recording is a sonic voyage of heady charm, like the landscapes of her native Norway.

Last year, we enjoyed her second opus with the same partners (see review on this site), and this new CD has the same qualities as the previous one: a taste for simple melodies, attention to the group sound, intense yet supple interaction between the partners, room left for silence…

The pianist’s compositions reveal a multifaceted yet predominantly dreamlike personality, and the luminous sound of her piano works wonders on cantabile themes with lush harmonies, sometimes close to gospel, where the leader sometimes lets out a trickle of her voice.

The double bass accompanies these melodies with mellow counterpoints, a woody sound and the occasional bow rub. As for the drums, they punctuate the whole with their melodic and rhythmic playing, which can be discreet or tonic depending on the track.

All in all, this is a trio which, while following in the footsteps of Keith Jarrett or Brad Mehldau, has succeeded in asserting its own personality, partly due to its Nordic origins.