daRk hOrse is a new Swedish, Gothenburg-based free improvising trio – pianist John Holmström, who accompanies vocalist Ida Lod, double bass player Alfred Lorinius, who plays in vocalist Isabel Sörling’s group Farvel and in pianist Naoko Skata trio and drummer Mårten Magnefors, who plays in the trio Dog Life. The debut album of the trio was recorded and mixed by Åke Linton, known as the sound engineer and producer of several albums of the Esbjörn Svenssons Trio.

daRk hOrse has a sound of its own. The six pieces succeed to balance between free-form, almost chaotic interplay and disciplined development of very different  cinematic soundscpaes, full of detail, tension, surprise and color. None of the pieces follows any conventional forms, but all are charged with intense, searching urgency. Still, only the short «Everyday Tiptoeing» and «The Leaf» comes close to fiery territories of the free jazz.

The longest piece, the 10-minutes «Obstinato», revolves around a cyclical rhythmic pattern that has a strange, accumulative hypnotic effect. The last piece, the quiet «Mörkt Ljust» (Dark Light), where Holmström touches lightly the piano strings while Lorinius and Magnefors add minimalist percussive touches of their own, serves as beautiful coda that stresses the cinematic spirit of this promising debut.

Eyal Hareuveni

John Holmström (p), Alfred Lorinius (b); Mårten Magnefors (dr)

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