Life In Leipzig

Terje Rypdal is one of the biggest names in Norwegian Jazz. Rock and beat music inform his improvising as much as Jazz and the classical tradition. Ketil Bjornstad is a pianist, composer/arranger and cultural commentator, and has released 50 albums since 1973. Here, they present an exciting live album recorded in Lepizig's Opera House. It's the first duo album from them, and Bjornstad's first ECM release in a decade. Material revisits pieces from Bjornstad's Water Stories and The Sea and Rypdal's If Mountains Could Sing and Skywards, and adds new material. Cranked-amp electric guitar and acoustic piano is a rare, possibly unique, duo combination. This is a readily accessible, strongly melodic, and often rocking album, and provides one of the best accounts of Rypdal's guitar playing.