Sphere

This session – made at Lugano’s Italian-Swiss radio studio – catches the immediacy of a group that approaches every session afresh, yet demonstrates years of shared understanding of one another’s... — Jazzwise, March 2023, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 17th Mar 2023
Catalogue No: 4873809
Label: ECM

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Recording of the Week, Bobo Stenson Trio, 'Sphere'

17th March 2023

The Swedish pianist's latest trio album showcases the band's atmospheric stylings through re-interpretations of Scandinavian composers.

The Bobo Stenson Trio's ability of covering far-reaching idioms and wide-ranging repertoire within the scope of their personal diction has become both hallmark and custom, inspiring the New York Times to say the pianist "makes sublime piano-trio records without over-playing. It's pulsating, lumpy with long improvised phrases; it's alive."

Charting an equally subtle and idiosyncratic path through originals and melodies derived from various Scandinavian composers, the distinguished group proves of a particularly supple alchemy on Sphere. Here, a variety of musical tenets coexist in the unique blend, which the Swedish pianist has wrought, developed and refined over decades of collaboration with ECM and Manfred Eicher, who, as Bobo says "brings out the musicians' best qualities" and produced the record.

The pianist's cohorts, Anders Jormin on bass and drummer Jon Flt, together accompanying the leader since Cantando in 2008, are more than ideal musical partners to Bobo's soft touch and infinite appetite for interplay. Bobo: "We don't have a way of playing 'ready-made'. Things crystallise in the moment and we adjust to that. And that's the quintessence. That's the joy of playing together, to never do the same thing twice and to be determined about that."

The album was recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, in April 2022.

Bobo Stenson: piano

Anders Jormin: double bass

Jon Flt: drums

Reviews

March 2023

This session – made at Lugano’s Italian-Swiss radio studio – catches the immediacy of a group that approaches every session afresh, yet demonstrates years of shared understanding of one another’s playing.

Sphere

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Recording of the Week, Bobo Stenson Trio, 'Sphere'

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