The untitled ECM double-album debut of young Norwegian saxophonist, composer and improviser Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg is an arrestingly original musical statement. ‘Jazz’ players and ‘classical’ players are drawn together in her ensembles, but the music shapes its own world, outside genre definitions. Mette Henriette is interlacing form and freedom in fresh ways here, as her intense and focused tenor saxophone sound moves inside compositions of sometimes disarming fragility. In this music, vulnerability can be as potent a force as full-tilt blowing, but there is a place for both. The recording’s expressive and emotional range is wide. Disc one here features trio music with Mette Henriette, pianist Johan Lindvall and cellist Katrine Schiøtt. Disc two has Mette’s “sinfonietta” with thirteen players. The line-up of the larger group includes some names familiar to ECM listeners – trumpeter Eivind Lønning, drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, and the members of the Cikada Quartet – all pooling creative energies to serve Mette’s music. The album was recorded at sessions in Oslo in May and August 2014, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Tracklist:

CD 1
1. so
2. .oOo. (Johan Lindvall)
3. the taboo
4. all ears
5. but careful
6. beneath you
7. once
8. we were to
9. 3 - 4 - 5 (Lindvall)
10. hi dive
11. a void
12. the lost one
13. in circles
14. I do
15. O (Lindvall)

CD 2
1. passé
2. pearl rafter
3. veils ever after
4. unfold
5. wildheart
6. strangers by midday
7. late à la carte
8. so it is
9. ?
10. true
11. this will pass too
12. but we did
13. I
14. breathe
15. off the beat
16. wind on rocks
17. bare blacker rum
18. & the silver fox
19. behold
20. better unheard (yet to be hold)