Chicago Reader

TOP 10 - 2012

On its second album this stunning Norwegian improvising duo—trumpeter Eivind Lønning and saxophonist Espen Reinertsen—continue to create breathy, slippery beauty from the barest of materials. For most of these tracks they keep the volume and attack on the quiet and gentle side, playing remarkably delicate, intuitive lines that glide, slide, sputter, and dip like a seasoned pair of dancers, except every move here is spontaneous. On the surface this stuff is unapologetically abstract, but there's a piercing beauty at work, reveling in the fragility of human breath and the way different instruments can find so many ways to fit together and play off one another in shared purpose.