Artist: Marilyn Crispell & Anders Jormin
Album: Memento
Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Improvisation
Label: ECM Records
Released: 2026
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
01. For the Children (Crispell-Jormin) - 5:45
02. Dialogue (Crispell-Jormin) - 4:40
03. Embracing the Otherness (Crispell-Jormin) - 3:37
04. Contemplation in D (Crispell-Jormin) - 5:36
05. Three Shades of a House - Morning (Jormin) - 3:12
06. Three Shades of a House - Evening (Jormin) - 1:50
07. Song (Crispell) - 3:14
08. Memento (Crispell) - 1:24
09. Beach at Newquay (Crispell) - 4:10
10. The Dark Light (Jormin) - 1:46
11. Dragonfly (Crispell) - 3:03
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American pianist Marilyn Crispell and Swedish bassist Anders Jormin are highly individual improvisers and composers with diverse and sometimes idiosyncratic styles. They've worked together occasionally since 1995, and both have long relationships with ECM. They first appeared on a recording together on 1995's Spring Tour, with drummer Raymond Strid, recorded in Sweden. In 2014, the pianist played on the bassist's In Winds, In Light. Memento, recorded in Lugano in July 2025, marks the first time they've recorded as a duo. The album showcases original compositions and four freely created works that introduce the album.
"For the Children" is remarkable for its seeming formalism. Crispell enters softly offering a poignant reflective melody; Jormin's bowed bass enters quietly, offering harmonic and expanded lyrical support. It's dedicated to the memory of innocents caught in wars across the globe. It includes plaintive Eastern tinges via Jormin's expressive arco playing in the upper register over gently rumbling then serene piano passages. Later, he underscores Crispell's intimate ruminations pizzicato. The reflective feel of the work sets the tone for the entire album. "Dialogue" is common in solemnity that four minutes later gives way to "Embracing the Otherness." The duo listen to and employ space as a key improvisational element, exploring tonalities in the upper registers of their instruments. They conclude this quartet of free compositions with the meditative, yet quiet conversational openness of "Contemplation in D."
The individually composed works commence with Jormin's "Three Shades of a House" (originally included on the Bobo Stenson Trio's 2018 set Contra la Indecisión) and are offered in "Morning" and "Evening" versions. They contrast in texture, tone, and luminosity, the former a ghostly dialogue dominated by piano; the latter a gorgeous recap and responsorial via bass solo. Crispell's "Song" has roots in "Song for Jeanne Lee" from the '90s. Despite its brevity at 3:14, it offers two exploratory solos before the pair come together in rumination during the final third. While the brief title track serves as a thoughtful interlude, it introduces Crispell's "Beach at Newquay." Jormin's bowed bass intro resembles seagull cries, as delicate piano notes fall gently, offering an evocation of nature on the Cornish coast; Crispell's playing comes across at different points like sunlight glittering over sea waves before picking up the mantle of Jormin's avian theme. The set closes with "Dragonfly," written in memory of Gary Peacock. Nearly hymnlike in its simplicity and reverence, it offers abundant tenderness in farewell. The true beauty of Memento is in this duo's discovery of an intimate common language based in spaciousness and languid grace that offers genuine emotion -- not merely shared virtuosity -- as a bridge to intimate communication that reaches beyond the music itself.