Omrum – Bringer Of Light

Hobby Horse

This is the first album for Danish quartet Omrum and has the unusual pairing of trombone and trumpet along with bass and drums. All four members are part of the fertile Copenhagen jazz scene and regular collaborators with other artists but here, Erik Kimestad, Mads Hyhne, Richard Andersson and Jakob Høyer have convened to bring their years of experience to bear on some of trumpeter Erik’s compositions along with some group improvisation.

It is great to see that, like a lot of recent albums, it was recorded live in a room over a couple of days. Using the Karmacrew Studio on the island of Mon, the immediacy and intimacy of the setting comes across well on the album.

The drifting skeletal opener gives an idea of what is to come, the wavering interplay between the horns uncertain, but the rhythm section provides gentle support that allows the horns to gradually unfurl. They have a strange harmony, as if searching the space for what the other has left out, and they each have their own sense of what is needed. The trumpet is often more vociferous with the trombone more measured; but there is vulnerability in the trumpet that the skipping bass and drums attempt to allay.

On other pieces the horns work as a team, looking to one another for support. Everything is careful and they are conscious of their effect on the others, so it feels measured and thoughtful; holding back rather than launching full pelt, the skittering textural percussion and dibs and dabs of bass holding it all together. Things can grow wilder and when the horns start to circle it becomes dizzying, the background filled with cymbal strikes and a flurries of percussion as the bass takes charge and shepherds them all towards some sort of conclusion.

Noirish movie themes appear later with the trumpet and rhythm section laying down a fast yet shadowy tempo, while at other points it is almost funereal. Slowly and deliberately they revel in the space within the room, watching one another as they inch forward. The penultimate track is more sinuous and shows the bass at an advantage, stepping across gaps; it feels like lights seen in the distance, drawing closer across the dew-soaked grass. There are torches here and there, and the players reflect the inconsistency of the light while bringing things to a conclusion that leaves questions still to be answered.

-Mr Olivetti-