TRACK OF THE DAY - DIAMONDS
With two fifths of the band plucked from the UK jazz scene in bass guitarist Conor Chaplin and Dinosaur keyboardist Elliot Galvin while drummer Anton Eger toured widely with the now disbanded Anglo-Swedish-Danish trio Phronesis, Norwegian saxophone star Marius Neset completes his band with a second pianist in the lesser known Magnus Hjorth but who like Eger goes back a long way with Neset and who was on Neset's magnum opus Suite For The Seven Mountains.
'Diamonds' recorded in a Copenhagen studio in June and written by Neset and Eger is a concentrated huddle of a piece texturally with a crowd of resonance and some piercing beautiful soprano lines from Neset who was first introduced to a UK audience by Django Bates.
There is a lot of agility in the piece and an incredible command of the instrument displayed. The keyboards lines are iridescent and highly engaging. 'Diamonds' is one of two tracks to stream ahead of the full album release of Happy on 11 November, the other is the warm meta calypso-esque title track where you can hear a little of the Bates influence on Neset compositionally.
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