Simon Toldam Trio: Kig Op 14

Release date: 29-09-2014

"Kig Op 14" is the first album of a duology recorded by Simon Toldam Trio in a feverish two-day session in Copenhagen, Denmark.

It consists of a dozen Toldam compositions tracked live in the studio to analog tape. Each piece relates to what you might see when taking a moment to simply stop and look up ... trees, sky, church towers, clouds, nothingness, endlessness, birds, ether ... everyday things we often forget in our everyday lives.

The music distills to pure essence the playful atmosphere of the ST3 debut album "Sunshine Sunshine or Green as Grass". Twelve explorations of various moods and rhythms take the trio from minimalistic acoustic soundscapes to folkish piano hymns to tuneful swings and ballads. The effect is much like bearing witness to the random blue world above us.

Drummer Knut Finsrud and bass player Nils Davidsen once again complete this versatile and vibrant trio. Whether it’s swinging, mooding, noising or silencing, the interplay between these three shows their stunningly ability to breathe and blow as one musical organism.

The two sessions were overseen by New York poet-producer Neill Furio, who encouraged a spontaneous in-studio intensity to distill and document the thunderous storms, prayerful reverence, and haiku-like quietude of the trio.

In April of 2015, the second half of the trio's sonic duology, "Kig Op 15" will be released. It will continue ST3's aural essay into the ups and downs of looking up.

Simon Toldam is one of Scandinavia’s most exciting and acclaimed musicians. He has received four Danish Jazz Grammys, is a member of the remarkable Danish jazz/avant-garde label ILK and has released ten CDs as leader/co-leader.


Aside from Simon Toldam Trio and STORK, he’s a member of Dutch drum legend Han Bennink’s trio, which released two celebrated albums on ILK. Additionally, Toldam has collaborated with Evan Parker, Peter Brötzmann, Misha Mengelberg, Tristan Honsinger, Chris Speed, Dave Douglas, Eivind Aarset, Nils-Petter Molvær, Marilyn Mazur and Eggs Laid By Tigers.