Jazz players and classical players are drawn together in her ensemble, but the music shapes its own world, outside genre definitions. Mette Henriette is interlacing form and freedom in fresh ways here, as her intense and focused tenor saxophone sound moves inside compositions of sometimes disarming fragility. In this music, vulnerability can be as potent a force as full-tilt blowing, but there is a place for both. The recording’s expressive and emotional range is wide.

Disc One features trio music with Mette Henriette, pianist Johan Lindvall and cellist Katrine Schiøtt. Disc Two has Mette’s “sinfonietta” with thirteen players. The line-up of the larger group includes some names familiar to ECM listeners – trumpeter Eivind Lønning, drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, and the members of the Cikada Quartet – all pooling creative energies to serve Mette’s music.

Cover photo: Anton Corbijn