Arve Henriksen
Cartography (ECM)

The world that trumpeter Arve Henriksen outlines in Cartography is generally quiet and dreamy, but beneath its contemplative surface lies a universe of surprise. Just how singular this Norwegian musician’s work can be might be lost on the casual listener, however: without prior warning it might be possible to mistake the many sounds he wrings from his instrument for the sampled or synthesized contributions of keyboardists Jan Bang and Erik Honoré.

Although Henriksen can play it straight—on Cartography’s “Migration”, for instance, he sounds like a chilly Nordic cousin of Miles Davis—he has an uncanny ability to push past the trumpet’s limitations. At times, he goes for an almost flutelike purity of tone, but by adding different degrees of breathiness he can invoke the more complex sonorities of the North Indian bansuri, the Japanese shakuhachi, or the willow flutes of Scandinavian traditional music. Elsewhere, he creates acoustic glitch-hop soundscapes by layering various popping and clucking timbres, or sings through his horn for genuinely otherworldly effect.

Henriksen may well be the most radical trumpeter working today, although compared with his free-improvised outings with Supersilent and others, Cartography is relatively accessible. Be warned that it is dark; not a lot of sun shines into its wintry atmosphere. But it’s very beautiful, nonetheless.