Peter Bruun's All Too Human - Vernacular Avant​-​garde (AYLER RECORDS March 10, 2018)

‘Less is more’ is a well-known saying. It’s an oxymoron because of its paradoxical nature. Paradoxes take us beyond ingrained patterns of perception, reasoning and action. That’s what is in the expression as coined by the old Greek. 

This newly formed unit’s music is simple without being simple. It sounds vaguely familiar and strange at the same time. It resembles a lot known and nothing known. It has a fairy tale quality and as we know, in fairy tales lots of wondrous things can happen.

Drummer Peter Bruun from Copenhagen has been aware through his musical career of the creative potential and power lurking in paradoxical manoeuvres. In this new unit he has gathered three like-minded musical fellows under the 'All Too Human' flag.

Through the years he undertook a lot of terra incognita expeditions with pianist Simon Toldam, guitarist Marc Ducret and trumpeter Kasper Tranberg. It connected and connects them on deeper levels in their musical interaction.

1. Follow Me 05:45

2. All Too Human

3. Vernacular Avant-garde 07:37

4. Sunshine Superman

5. Extended Mind

6. Is That So Sir Names? 07:20

Kasper Tranberg, trumpet, cornet 

Marc Ducret, guitars (6 & 12-stringed) 

Simon Toldam, moog, juno 60, philicorda 

Peter Bruun, drums, mikrokorg

Recorded in Copenhagen at The Village Studio, April 2017.

All compositions written and produced by Peter Bruun,

except #6 by Peter Bruun and Petter Eldh.

Cover artwork by Stéphane Berland.

Samuel Blaser with Marc Ducret Peter Bruun - Taktlos Zürich 2017 (hatOLOGY 747 2018)

Parsed into four discrete pieces, the Taktlos performance is a fluid exercise in revolving roles from the jump. Ducret trades in jagged punctuations, mercurial arpeggios and swollen drone bursts on Stoppage, the first and longest. Blaser reacts as balm, his lubricious lines drawing a direct invisible lineage back suave and soothing bop purveyers. A reversal and it’s Blaser with low brass growls as Brunn colors the corners and edges keeping a rhythmic presence which bolsters and ornaments without drawing attention away from the colloquy of his colleagues. A drum solo filled with fluid, frothing beats works as both palate cleanser and reset into an ambling blues. Later, a froggy brass ostinato serves a similar purpose signaling first clean picking from Ducret and then feral, sharp-fanged blasts of distortion.

- Derek Taylor

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Django Bates' & Belovèd - The Study Of Touch (ECM 2017)

British pianist Django Bates returns to ECM with one of his very finest constellations, the trio Belovèd, with Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and Danish drummer Peter Bruun, and an aptly named album, The Study of Touch. All three musicians are highly individual players, subtly challenging the conventions of the jazz piano trio. The group came together a decade ago when Bates was teaching at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory. The shared work has included inspired reconstructions of pieces associated with Charlie Parker – a formative influence for both Bates and bassist Eldh - and in this new album, Parker’s tune “Passport” is set amid Django originals, and played with respect, contemporary sensibility and joy. Some of Django’s own tunes here – such as “Senza Bitterness”, “Sadness All The Way Down” and “We Are Not Lost, We Are Simply Finding Our Way” have become core pieces in Belovèd’s repertoire, continually remodeled by this trio of improvisers. Bates’ composing and arranging skills are much in evidence, along with his freewheeling, free-flowing virtuosic melodic sense. The terse, percussive edge of Petter Eldh’s bass provides momentum and drummer Peter Bruun details the music with an almost painterly touch. In the crowded world of the piano trio, Belovèd has developed a sound all its own. The Study of Touch was recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in June 2016, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

01. Sadness All the Way Down

02. Giorgiantics

03. Little Petherick

04. Senza Bitterness

05. We Are Not Lost, We Are Simply Finding Our Way

06. This World

07. The Study of Touch

08. Passport

09. Slippage Street

10. Peonies As Promised

11. Happiness All the Way Up

Django Bates piano

Petter Eldh double bass

Peter Bruun drums