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.

1. For the Children [05:45]
2. Dialogue [04:39]
3. Embracing the Otherness [03:37]
4. Contemplation in D [05:35]
5. Three Shades of a House - Morning [03:12]
6. Three Shades of a House - Evening [01:50]
7. Song [03:13]
8. Memento [01:24]
9. Beach at Newquay [04:10]
10. The Dark Light [01:46]
11. Dragonfly [03:03]

Recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in July 2025, with Manfred Eicher producing, Memento opens on the veritable crystalline For the Children and the quietly tempered Dialogue and then we get brought forth the veritably crystalline Embracing the Otherness, the emotive Contemplation in D, before the two-parter is gifted us: the gently awakening Three Shades of a House - Morning and then the more languishing Three Shades of a House - Evening.

Along next is the stoically fluid Song which is itself backed seamlessly by the moving short, but sweet titular Memento, the atmospherically spirited Beach at Newquay, the set rounding out on the impassioned The Dark Light, coming to a close on the sheer elegance of the beautifully sculpted Dragonfly.

Official Purchase Link

Marilyn Crispell Website

Anders Jormin Website