Purcor ECM***

Trygve Seim's multifaceted jazz career includes occasional collaborations over the past 13 years with church composer Andreas Utnem, an association finally documented in this 2008 recording. Recorded in Oslo's venerable Tøyen Kirke, Purcoris a thing of simplicity, beauty, melodic grace and almost telepathic interaction. At the core of a repertoire (which also embraces Norwegian folk songs and two Seim originals) is church music, mostly composed by Utnem, who plays piano and harmonium. Some spontaneous joint creations with Seim, on tenor and soprano, complete the music. In their unemphatic way, there's an insistent vibrancy animating these miniatures' quiet delicacy. Seim's tenor, in particular, is entrancing in a partnership with Utnem peaking on the traditional Pater Noster, the question-and-answer of Responsoriumand the East-West mix of the improvised Postludium. See classical.ie