Trygve Seim - Rumi Songs

The Guardian 80

(ECM)

Norwegian saxophonist and composer Trygve Seim has created plenty of fine large-ensemble jazz and world music, but this lineup uses only sax, accordion, cello and vocals to accompany the writings of the 13th-century Persian poet and mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi – sung in English by mezzo-soprano Tora Augestad. Seim is a voicelike saxophonist, and his tenor and soprano horns wreathe enchantingly around Augestad’s serene recitations throughout this set. There’s playfulness as well as tranquillity (the sprightly Seeing Double is a light-stepping dance for springy accordion figures and cello flights like a jazz violin), and on Across the Doorsill, Frode Haltli’s high accordion sounds glisten like ice as Augestad’s flawless tones wheel above. Seim is full of melodic and tonal surprises when barely any rhythm buoys him up, the impending-death song Leaving My Self is mesmerising, as Augestad’s elisions and subtle dynamics float over Svante Henryson’s buzzing cello, while the waltzing There Is Some Kiss We Want is as guilelessly accessible as a song from a Broadway musical.