Mathias Eick - Midwest (2015)

Posted By: Designol

Date: Nov. 27, 2024

Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick opts for a different approach on Midwest. Four years after the song-like Skala, his sophomore ECM date that has attained "classic" status in European critical circles, he employs notions of history, folk tradition, and dislocation. This album was inspired by Eick's time spent playing the American continent; his tour began on the West Coast. When he entered the rural, upper Midwest and encountered its vast open spaces, he began to feel a sense of "home." He later learned that over the past two centuries of immigration, over a million Norwegians had settled there. After conceiving a "road" album that would begin in Hem, the village of his birth, and traverse the ocean to America, Eick enlisted violinist Gjermund Larsen (a folk musician who has contributed to Christian Wallumrød's ECM recordings), pianist Jon Balke, double bassist Mats Eilertsen, and percussionist Helge Norbakken. The compositions are all lyrical, in typical Eick fashion, but with Larsen they take on a rougher, more earthen quality. The violinist's attention to the instrument's early, raw, root sound lends balance to these melodies, and the interplay between violin and trumpet throughout is not only alluring, but often arresting. On the title track, there is a gently euphoric feel as the lyric unfolds, which, via Larsen's violin and Norbakken's hand shakers (he's a member of the Batagraf ensemble), offers rhythmic and melodic traces of Native American song in contrast. "March," with gorgeous ostinato playing from Balke and halting arco work from Eilertsen, is much more open, embracing mode and rhythm along an improvisational line while Eick's horn takes on a flute-like quality in its lyricism. The tune's feel is not unlike those heard on Pat Metheny's early records for ECM, despite obvious textural and tonal differences. "Dakota"'s percussion evokes the thunder of bison hooves crossing the plains, as the ghostly, minor-key harmonic interplay suggests the spooky, imposing Black Hills. "Fargo," in an obvious nod to the Coen Brothers film, strings together a gentle, lullaby-esque folk song with strains of drama and humor. The darker violin meets Eick's trumpet in the head to contrast the familiar with the mysterious. Balke's lovely solo is particularly suggestive of the latter. Despite the obvious nods to America, Midwest is deliberately more Norwegian in its musical outlook than some of Eick's other recordings. Therefore, it perfectly illustrates the thematic frame of the journey he set out to portray: that of the immigrant encountering the unknown and embracing it, and in the process, creating a new personal and cultural history without forsaking the old one.

Review by Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com

Mathias Eick at Allmusic
Mathias Eick at Wiki

Mathias Eick - trumpet
Gjermund Larsen - violin
Jon Balke - piano
Mats Eilertsen - double bass
Helge Norbakken - percussion

Recorded at Rainbow Studio, Oslo in May 2014.

Tracklist:

01. Midwest (05:13)
02. Hem (05:17)
03. March (05:56)
04. At Sea (04:06)
05. Dakota (04:58)
06. Lost (05:46)
07. Fargo (06:23)
08. November (05:02)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 7. April 2015, 20:17

Mathias Eick / Midwest

Used drive : PHILIPS SPD3400CC Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "COMMENT=EAC V1.0 beta 3, Secure Mode, Test & Copy, AccurateRip, FLAC -8" %source%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:13.52 | 0 | 23526
2 | 5:13.52 | 5:17.24 | 23527 | 47325
3 | 10:31.01 | 5:56.20 | 47326 | 74045
4 | 16:27.21 | 4:06.43 | 74046 | 92538
5 | 20:33.64 | 4:58.62 | 92539 | 114950
6 | 25:32.51 | 5:46.34 | 114951 | 140934
7 | 31:19.10 | 6:23.15 | 140935 | 169674
8 | 37:42.25 | 5:02.57 | 169675 | 192381

Track 1

Filename C:\Users\Maison\Downloads\Rips\01 - Midwest.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 4CC2F225
Copy CRC 4CC2F225
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Users\Maison\Downloads\Rips\02 - Hem.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.39

Peak level 98.9 %
Extraction speed 2.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 437546B8
Copy CRC 437546B8
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Users\Maison\Downloads\Rips\03 - March.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:03.19

Peak level 96.1 %
Extraction speed 2.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8B77C5AC
Copy CRC 8B77C5AC
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\Users\Maison\Downloads\Rips\04 - At Sea.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:03.20

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 048A77EA
Copy CRC 048A77EA
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\Users\Maison\Downloads\Rips\05 - Dakota.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:03.32

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 2.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E3F57E1E
Copy CRC E3F57E1E
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename C:\Users\Maison\Downloads\Rips\06 - Lost.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:03.03

Peak level 99.0 %
Extraction speed 3.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 23113B53
Copy CRC 23113B53
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename C:\Users\Maison\Downloads\Rips\07 - Fargo.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.49

Peak level 99.2 %
Extraction speed 3.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C2D9FF6D
Copy CRC C2D9FF6D
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename C:\Users\Maison\Downloads\Rips\08 - November.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:04.28

Peak level 98.9 %
Extraction speed 2.7 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 5D3B0DFE
Copy CRC 5D3B0DFE
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum 50C03AE3C6AF147927D7A1A4435399A4A11F44C80A303B77DD9153458FEE3A3F ====

DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2015-07-23 16:22:40

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Mathias Eick / Midwest
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR11 0.00 dB -14.15 dB 5:14 01-Midwest
DR12 -0.09 dB -15.18 dB 5:17 02-Hem
DR13 -0.34 dB -17.83 dB 5:56 03-March
DR13 -0.10 dB -15.73 dB 4:07 04-At Sea
DR11 0.00 dB -13.79 dB 4:59 05-Dakota
DR12 -0.08 dB -14.45 dB 5:46 06-Lost
DR13 -0.07 dB -16.21 dB 6:23 07-Fargo
DR13 -0.09 dB -16.78 dB 5:03 08-November
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 8
Official DR value: DR12

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 619 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

All thanks to original releaser

More interesting music in My Blog

See also:
Mathias Eick - The Door (2008)