The trio of Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug, known for his work with American sax player Mark Turner and Danish composer Bent Sørensen, Norwegian vocal artist-sax player Sissel Vera Pettersen, the artistic director of Trondheim Voices who did the cover painting, and Belgian clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst, known for his projects Carate Urio Orchestra and Zero Years Kid, began working fifteen years ago and often called the Equilibrium after its debut album (Songlines, 2009. Lento is the fourth studio album of the trio, it was recorded at Øra Studio in Trondheim in January and November 2023, and released by Badenhorst’s label Klein.

Lento is released ten years after the trio’s last album, Liquid Light (Songlines, 2024). Vera Pettersen uses only her vocals and live electronics here. The album features eleven pieces that offer an evocative, minimalist blend of jazz, folk, world, ambient and contemporary music. True to its title, the intimate and patient spirit of the album highlights the strong individual voices of Ploug, Vera Pettersen and Badenhorst, as well as the unique trio’s synergy and the organic flow of the music.

The five improvised pieces stress the exploratory side of the trio, focusing on cinematic-atmospheric dreamscapes that are charged by Vera Pettersen’s expressive vocals and live electronics. Ploug’s six original pieces are more structured and song-like, suggesting a gentle, vulnerable side of the trio, relying on simple yet moving melodies (Check «Winter Lullaby», «Peace Chant» and «Movement in B»), and, obviously, Ploug’s intricate guitar work, as well as Vera Pettersen’s emotional delivery and Badenhorst’s understated, whispering-singing lines on the clarinet and the bass clarinet. The trio weaves beautifully their distinct voices and disparate veins into a coherent and beautiful moving statement.

Eyal Hareuveni

Mikkel Ploug (guitar), Sissel Vera Pettersen (vocals, live electronics), Joachim Badenhorst (clarinet, bass clarinet)