It seems strange that
The Door on ECM is 29-year-old trumpeter/composer
Mathias Eick's debut album as a bandleader. Strange because despite his age,
Eick has appeared on over 50 recordings already, five of them -- not including this one -- for ECM in the last four years. But it's not only that
Eick is, like many of his generation in Norway, a very diverse musician whose tastes run from jazz to club to rock & roll to funk, it's more that these are all traditions that are opening up to one another in new ways in the 21st century (in Europe at least). Some evidence is in his choice of companions on
The Door. Veteran pianist and fellow ECM labelmate
Jon Balke is here, as is bassist and guitarist
Audun Erlien (a member of
Eivind Aarset's recording and touring groups), drummer
Audun Kleive, who plays with
Balke and
Jan Garbarek's groups as well as performing on the
Terje Rypdal/
Ronni Le Tekrø albums, and the nearly ubiquitous multi-instrumentalist
Stian Carstensen on pedal steel on three of the set's eight tunes.