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Morten Duun: Code Breaker

By Jerome Wilson
January 7, 2025
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This album by guitarist

Morten Duun

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Morten Duun constructs a delicate and indeterminate beauty from just a few elements: guitar, trumpet, drums and occasional piano and voice. The music is a gauzy blend of sounds set in a lush silence reminiscent of some of the ECM recordings of

Ralph Towner

guitar
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Ralph Towner. There is a dreamy feel to the interplay of Duun's strummed guitar and

Brandon Choi

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Brandon Choi's echoing trumpet on "Everything You Say is a Spoon," with drummer

Wouter Kuhne

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Wouter Kuhne rumbling in the background. The trio achieves a tighter melodic unity in "On Space" and "Anti-arrhythmic Arithmetic," which turns harder as Duun switches to forceful electric guitar that swirls around Choi's focused single-note blasts.

Other musicians add more weight and body to the basic trio on several tracks.

Matthew Sheens

piano
b.1986

" data-original-title="" title="">Matthew Sheens' piano brings formal gravity to "Actual Malice." He also bounces lightly off Choi's muted playfulness on "They Build Dams to Stem the Flood of Tears" before the piece surges into heavy prog rock storming led by the leader's guitar. Voices are another important component of this music. Mim Crellin provides an added bit of humanity on "Closeness in Distance" as she sings wordlessly against Choi's sighing trumpet. She also beautifully sings an evocative Mediterranean melody over the drifting instrumental ambiance of "Splashing in the Shallows." Then there is "Ever" with Crellin and

Theo Bleckmann

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Theo Bleckmann trading vocal lines as Duun's guitar weaves between them, producing an eerie sort of acid-folk vibe.

This is a sparse but intriguing album that gives off a hazy cloud of mystery. Morten Duun and the other musicians put together something with a haunting atmosphere that is unsettling on the surface but somehow soothing in its assured grace.

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Track Listing

Actual Malice; Everything You Say Is A Spoon; There is Closeness in Distance; On Time; They Build Dams to Stem the Flow of Tears; Gladly, I Follow; Splashing in the Shallows; On Space; Anti-arrhythmic Arithmetic; Ever.

Personnel

Morten Duun

guitar

Brandon Choi

trumpet

Wouter Kuhne

drums

Additional Instrumentation

Matthew Sheens: piano (1, 5); Mim Crellin: voice (3, 7, 10); Theo Bleckmann: voice (10).

Album information

Title: Code Breaker | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Cmntx

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