The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of directions in music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. They've played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet. Compositions by Anders Jormin and Trygve Seim, the Finnish traditional 'Armon Lapset' (Children of Mercy), and Jormin's arrangement of Ornette Coleman's 'What Reason Could I Give' are slotted into a programme of graceful collective improvisations distinguished by lyrical imagination, reflective soloing and sensitive group interaction.
