Markus Stockhausen, Vangelis Katsoulis, Arild Andersen – Across Mountains

Genre: Jazz

Rating: 5/5

Released on Feb 4, 2022

I’ve been putting some time in with Stocky Jr recently and the more I listen the more I like. Straight to the point, he’s great at playing the trumpet. He goes straight to the heart of the instrument. There might be a word for it, but you know how the trumpet is proud but sad? Even in a band the trumpet always seems to be saying, “Hey, I don’t need anyone else or anything but I’m alone out here.” Stockhausen does a great job of bringing that spirit out of the instrument and it’s very powerful on this record in particular.

His teammates are in top form here as well. On the track Arco Flight Arild Andersen plays a wonderful bass solo. It’s cerebral and exploratory like it’s hiking deep in the mountains. Vangelis Katsoulis pushes the record into third stream dissonance, specially on the short track The Rebel but also throughout the album. Katsoulis’ role is vital in the way it pushes a seriousness into the music that it needs to be next level. Both of the side players also add sonic texturing sound effects and without that, as great as the rest of rest of the work is, there are so many talent rich jazz records out there, without the texturing there wouldn’t be as much of a reason to reach for this record instead of something else. It’s the ambiance that should keep it in rotation.