An intriguing trio is created by leader Daniel Herskedal as he plays bass trumpet and tuba with Eyolf Dale on piano and celesta along with Helge Norbakken on drums and marimba.
It’s quite difficult to tell the difference between the two brass instruments, as they are mostly used here not as keeping pulse, but for creating exotic tones and atmospheres. The horn gives an exotic mist like a shofar on the mystical “The Mariner’s Cross” and caravan cadences provided by Norbakken on the camel’d gait of “Ice-Free”. Herskedal’s tuba hovers around Dale’s dancing piano that glides with the percussion on “Hunters Point Drydocks”, with a bouncy joy teamed together on “Port of Call”. Hints of a souk in Marrakech are derived with hand percussion and Mediterranean sunsets on “The Beaches of Lesbos” with the rams horn mourning to African trickles on “The White Lion Docks in Point Comfort”. A journey through the sands of North Africa and the seas of the Aegean.