Landæus Trio - Mind the Gap of Silence (2020)

In this new opus coming from Sweden, poly-saxophonist Martin Küchen joins the Landaeus Trio, not only adding his instruments to the band led by pianist Mathias Landaeus but also his immediately recognizable personal compositions, full of Scandinavian folk-like melodies and complex African-inspired pulsations. The curious result of this encounter, “Mind the Gap of Silence” is simultaneously more abstract and more melodic than anything done before by Küchen and the Landaeus Trio in their separate ways on the fields of creative jazz. And that is unexpected, considering that abstraction and melodism travel different paths. The emotion is raw, but always in equilibrium with a kind of beauty you can’t describe with words, everything happening as if in slow fire. And no, what you’ll find here has little to do with the several complexions of Küchen’s Angles project. It’s something else entirely, with much to discover and to savor. Who could expect that the Landaeus Trio’s very characteristic mix of passion and introspective subtlety would marry so well with his ideas? Have a good journey…