Track Listing

1. The Door
2. Stavanger
3. Cologne Blues
4. October
5. December
6. Williamsburg
7. Fly
8. Porvoo

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43793 in Music
• Released on: 2008-05-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

The Guardian, (John Fordham), May 30, 2008
(4 stars) His silky, unbrasslike sound is ideally suited to this undulating groove-landscape...Balke helps give the music a collective fluency.

The Observer Music Monthly, (Stuart Nicholson), July 2008
(4 stars) Instrumental music that's almost poetic in its construction...One you'll listen to on repeat to fathom its subtle meanings.

Irish Times, (Ray Comiskey), June 20, 2008
A quartet album of understated beauty...where the solos and joint improvisations develop organically. It's deceptively simple music.

Customer Reviews

A great opening
After appearing on four recordings in the last few years, "The Door" opens what will hopefully be a long career for Norwegian trumpeter Eick as a bandleader on ECM. If there is nothing revolutionary in the eight tracks then the appeal consists in the fact that none of the tracks is less than excellent, the quality of the production highlights all the musicians' mastery of their respective instruments and, even if he does not sing with the purity and richness of Rava or yet have the range of Stanko, Eick is a trumpeter worthy of comparison with these two greats.

The album "The Door" begins brilliantly with the track of the same name. A few strums of tasteful guitar (which is sparingly deployed on only a handful of tracks) ushers a bright and breezy start before Eick's incessantly melodic trumpet creates a tone at once upbeat and yet slightly doleful as the track builds over eight minutes showcasing the fantastic piano playing of Jon Balke. The second track "Stavanger" is the wildest and most adventurous number; a worthy tribute to the European city of culture and is the most interesting of the eight compositions. It begins with jerky stop-start funk, not unlike Talking Heads at their most adventurous, Eick alternating beautiful melodic phrases with shrill stabs of sound. 5 minutes in Balke's keyboard brings to mind the recent release of Nik Bartsch`s Ronin as the track builds in intensity and sound.

Thereafter, EIck and his cohorts prove to be equally adept at the more upbeat numbers (such as Williamburg) and the ballads (the appropriately autumnal and wintry "October" and "December" and "Cologne Blues" whose bluesy feel is aided by Stian Carstensen's guest pedal steel guitar). The forty eight minutes or so of the album pass quickly and it invites repeated playing to bask in its feel and appreciate the sheer quality on display. Highly recommended.

Bought on Spec
I bought this after it was recommended that I might like it! This a great CD. I'd not heard of Mathias Eick before. Like all ECM recordings this is beautifully produced. There are haunting melodies with some delightful piano backingto the lead of Eick on trumpet, guitar and vibraphone. If you like the jazz that has been coming out of the Scandanavian countries you will love this cd. Nothing too challenging to listento; more meditative in the ECM way.

a let-down
I'm a great fan on some of Eick's other ECM appearences as a sideman and had high hopes for this, his first ECM as a leader. His playing on Iro Haarla's wonderful 'Northbound' is consistently inventive and beautiful, likewise he shines on Jacob Young's two releases.

I found 'The Door', to be a real disappointment though. Eick himself plays well enough although a little unadventurously , but the rest of the band sound stale and predictable - even Jon Balke can't lift this with his sometimes oblique piano harmonies. There is just no chemistry, a pity as this CD seemed like a stormer on paper...