Memento – Marilyn Crispell & Anders Jormin

Although their association goes back many years, Memento – an album of lyrical and subtle music making – Is the first duo recording by Marilyn Crispell and Anders Jormin. At ECM, US pianist Crispell previously appeared on Jormin’s cycle of sacred songs, In Winds, In Light (2004), and she has credited the Swedish bassist as an influence on her own musical thinking: “When I heard Anders playing, it touched a chord in me that resonated strongly.” Memento begins with a powerful sequence of space-conscious duo improvisations before moving to compositions by each of the players. “Three Shades of a House” is a piece that Jormin has featured in his work with Bobo Stenson (see the album Contra la indecisión), here played in “Morning” and “Evening” variations – the first a pellucid exploration of the theme with Crispell to the fore, the second a meditation for dark-toned bass. Crispell’s “The Beach at Newquay” sketches the coast of Cornwall, with Jormin’s high pitched arco bass evoking seagull cries. The album concludes with “Dragonfly”, dedicated to the memory of Gary Peacock. Throughout, the musicians respond to the sensitive and detail-heightening acoustics of Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, in this album produced by Manfred Eicher in July 2025.