All power to the melody (almost)

“Sun Moee»

SkyDive Trio

Hubro / Musikkoperatørene

Guitarist Thomas T Dahl shines in SkyDive Trios democratic, melodic interplay.

SkyDive Trio is guitarist Thomas T Dahl, bassist Mats Eilertsen and drummer Olavi Louhivuori. If these names sound familiar, it’s possibly because the trio also constitute three-fifths of Eilertsen “SkyDive” where Tore Brunborg and Alexi Tuomarila are the other two, and 3/7th of Eilertsen’s “Rubicon”, where Eirik Hegdal, Trygve Seim, Rob Waring and Harmen Fraanje fixes rest of the fraction.

Fractions aside “Sun Moee” is both an intense and engaging title song (Dahl) and an unashamed, melodymassaging guitar trio album that lives a good life in the echo of Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny and occasionally Terje Rypdal and Peter Green. Thomas T Dahl (who has written three songs, while Eilertsen (3) and Louhivuori (1) stands for the remainder of the original material) is the album dominant voice with his various soundtemperament, steady melodic tracks sense and crystalline neat phrasing, but Eilertsen and Louhivuori also fills major roles in creative and fingertipsensitive view to the rich trio interplay. Therefore “Sun Moee» never becomes some kind of “soloist with backing” album, especially underlined with the final, “Four Words”, Louhivuoris timbre sculptural piece that can either be seen as a break with the rest of the disc repertoire or as a very interesting extension of trio throughout tonal and temporal-based expressions.

It says something about this trio creative force that the cover version of Portisheads “Sour Times” perhaps is the album’s least interesting track, and as such could easily have given way to more original material. Nevertheless “Sun Moee” is an album that is easy to like, and a handicrafted product with all the authority that comes with effortless, masterly musicianship. Even where the inspirations of this masterpiece seem to hover dangerously close, it’s hard to feel anything but joy over the achievements of this trio.

Terje Mosnes