Axel Dorner, Marthe Lea, Birgitte Lyregaard - Huckleberry Friend (2021)

At a time when musicians the world over are only beginning to think about returning to the pre-pandemic days of live music, the next best thing might just be a brand new album of music created completely in the moment in front of a live audience. Recorded just before the pandemic began at The Monday Club and Klub Primi in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 17 and 18, 2020, ‘Huckleberry Friend’ is a document of three master European improvisers doing what they do best: feeding off the energy of the audience and each other to make spontaneous music in their own unique language, never to be repeated again. Vocalist Birgitte Lyregaard (Alain Jean-Marie, Brice Soniano, Toma Gouband) brings a unique palette of sound to free improvisation. Having studied voice since early childhood, she has developed her own unique style of imitation, poetry, timbres and an exploration of the outer limits of vocal expression. Trumpeter Axel Dörner (Otomo Yoshihide, Paul Lovens and Phil Minton) has over 150 albums to his name and is the 2019 recipient of the Jazzprize of the City of Berlin. Rounding out the trio is tenor saxophonist Marthe Lea (Trilok Gurtu, Bugge Wesseltoft, Alasdair Roberts), a musician with wide-ranging influences including free jazz, Norwegian folk music, Moroccan gnawa and traditional Indian music.