TiPPLE is the trans-Atlantic working trio of Norwegian free-improv hero, Stavanger-based reeds player Frode Gjerstad with New York-based guitarist and bagpipes player David Watson and drummer-percussionist Kevin Norton. Gjerstad calls TiPPLE «a nice little trio» that creates «sound pictures» and produces music that «is not constantly loud, but reflective and moving». «Cartoon Heart» is the fifth album of the trio since 2010 (and Gjerstad recently released another live recording of TiPPLE on his newly-founded Bandcamp page), recorded in the studio, in Leonia, New Jersey, in September 2018.

«Cartoon Heart» offers 15 concise approaches to free-improvisation that highlight the inclusive strategies of Gjerstad, Watson, and Norton, their fascinating musical imagination and their immediate, telepathic interplay. In a way, each of these pieces suggests a distinct «sound picture» of its own. These pieces often focus on one main improvised strategy – fast, tight and aggressive on «Incinerator», adding lyricism to the powerful, chaotic recipe on the title-piece, exploring thorny, rhythmic roots on «Smoke Rings», trading on sparse, percussive grounds on «Hope Springs» and navigating through mysterious, sensual drone on «Ghost Ship». And these are only the first five pieces.

There is no musical idea that TiPPLE can not shape in its very own extraordinary dynamics and highly inventive discourse, always with great control and composure and an eccentric, mischievous sense of fun. TiPPLE will keep your ears wide open and alert but promises to keep serving you some of the finest and most colorful sonic gems.

Eyal Hareuveni

David Watson (g, Scottish smallpipes), Kevin Norton (perc, dr), Frode Gjerstad (s, cl, alto fl)