Fabel is the new trio of Danish trumpeter Jakob Sørensen, featuring close comrades from the Royal Academy of Aarhus – double bass player Jens Mikkel Madsen, who has played with Sørensen in the Elliott trio, and pianist Kasper Staub, who plays in Madsen’s I Think You’re Awesome group. Sørensen, now already moved to Copenhagen, wanted now to present a more holistic dimension of his aesthetics – a visual-audio one. Fabel debut album features eight different videos produced specially for each tune by video artists André Hansen & Frank Nielsen.

The visual experience contributes visual insights to the reserved-melancholic atmosphere captured in the beautiful, melodic ballads. Sørensen always knew how to articulate evocative, lyrical melodies that sounds like a stories within songs, eluusive in their folksy simplicity but having an immediate, deep emotional impact, and Fabel is no exception. He wrote six concise songs for Fabel and Staub contributed another two. The chamber interplay with his close friends is totally organic and egalitarian, simple and emphatic, focused on serving the suggestive, storytelling narrative. Sørensen warm tone, sometimes, patient whispering phrasing, charges each melody distinct with few, simple note.

The videos, with model Sarah Francesca Brænne, suggest loose, leisured plots located on the beautiful, countryside of Denmark. The videos are experienced by me, a foreigner from faraway country, as tempting to relocate to these unpopulated regions of this Nordic country. These videos enrich the listening experience but are not essential to it. Sørensen is gifted with a unique melodic sensibility that does not need any ornamentations or visual additives.

Eyal Hareuveni

Jakob Sørensen (trumpet); Kasper Staub (piano); Jens Mikkel (double bass)