A striking musical rapport between Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Dutch pianist Harmen Fraanje is palpable in the duo’s quietly lyrical investigations on Touch of Time.

These are delicate melodies and textures, flowing between two musicians, who are deeply in tune with nuances of tone-shadings and the detailed development of a musical idea.

In both freely improvised forms and carefully wrought themes, their instruments connect gracefully, picking up and finishing each other’s phrases. Touch of Time, recorded in January 2023 at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, was produced by Manfred Eicher.

1. Melancholia (3:58)
2. The Beauty Of Sundays (3:29)
3. Redream (8:45)
4. The Dark Light (4:00)
5. What All This Is (3:51)
6. Mirror Images (2:48)
7. Touch Of Time (3:18)
8. Winter Haze (1:10)
9. Red And Black (2:39)
10. Passing On The Past (4:13)

This beautifully crafted opus of notes opens on the aptly-titled aching yearn within Melancholia and the delicate gossamer of The Beauty Of Sundays, and they are followed by the reaching, the impassioned Redream, and then we get the touching The Dark Light and the stirring What All This Is.

Along next is the compelling notes brought forth within What All This Is and the subtly fragile Mirror Images and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the ornate, titular Touch Of Time, the recording rounding out on the graceful Winter Haze, the slightly sterner fare of Red And Black, closing on the glistening Passing On The Past.

Arve and Harmen: “We consider Touch of Time to be exactly where we meet in music. Although there are solid structures within these pieces, we form the material very freely, as a holistic process, rather than a static approach borne from preconception.”

The music was shaped together with Manfred Eicher, who produced the album, recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano in early 2023.

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