Trygve Seim & Andreas Utnem - Purcor: Songs for Saxophone and Piano

2022 European CD reissue.

Modestly subtitled “Songs for saxophone and piano”, this recording quietly covers a lot of ground, with repertoire including new musical settings of parts of the Mass, folk songs, theatre music, improvisations, and a new version of Seim’s softly-breathing tune “Bhavana” (first heard on “Different Rivers”). “Purcor” is the first recorded documentation of a duo that already has a 14 year history. In the mid 1990s pianist-composer Andreas Utnem, working with Norway’s Church City Mission foundation, invited saxophonist Seim to join him for selected church services, improvising around variations on the psalms and playing some of his compositions and Trygve’s. In time, this developed into an informal regular ‘gig’ and in 2008 the players decided it was time to record the special music they had shaped along the way. “Purcor” was recorded at Tøyen Kirke, a church in the older part of Oslo. The album is a thoughtful and reflective album, of great charm.