Daniel Sommer Sound & Sequences

Danish drummer Daniel Sommer proudly presents the second installment of his critically acclaimed Nordic Trilogy, a project aiming to capture and document Nordic improvisation and composition across three carefully curated ensembles. Featuring Swedish bassist Johannes Lundberg and Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, 'Sounds & Sequences' is set to release on April Records. A followup to 'As Time Passes' featuring Sommer alongside UK guitarist Rob Luft and Norwegian ECM bassist Arild Andersen, the project develops as Sommer says, not to try to make the same kind of music three times in a row, but rather to shed light on Nordic improvisation today from various angles and perspectives. With a focus on vulnerability, intuition, and the dialogue between electronic and acoustic sounds, 'Sounds & Sequences' offers a striking contrast in aesthetic and mood to the previous record, tied together by a shared sense of refined musical literacy, poetic sensitivity and open-hearted exploration. Drawing inspiration from chamber music, spiritual jazz, and electronic and ambient music, the trio made several visits to Studio Epidemin in Gothenburg several times between March 2022 and December 2023, recording music with no set goals or briefs. Faced with a large volume of recordings, the group then set about compiling their free improvisations into a cohesive statement with form, narrative and direction. We simply improvised, listened, discussed, and improvised again until something emerged. With the interactive, spacious, and dynamic sound of live trio performances at its core, bowed upright bass harmonics, Henriksen's lamenting trumpet melodies, and Sommer's grooving, textural approach to the kit are plunged into a powerful, ethereal universe decorated with screeching distortion, fluttering delays, soaring overtone singing, gritty bit crushers and cavernous reverbs.