Bleak House vinyl

A singular force in European jazz, Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal emerged from Oslo's late-60s underground, swapping out psychedelic rock theatrics for a more searching, cinematic mode of improvisation. This early work catches him mid-morph, just 21 and already pulling away from the fuzz of his band The Dream to chase a colder, more expressive language. 'Dead Man's Tale' sets the toneigritty, restless, stretched to its limitsiwhile 'Wes' offers a moment of reverence in its loose, lyrical swing. There's a quiet narrative elegance to 'Winter Serenade', its three-part structure marking snowfall, storm and thaw, and 'Bleak House' and 'Sonority' lean darker, flirting with the avant-garde. Closer 'A Feeling Of Harmony' tilts things back toward resolution, leaving behind a kind of luminous melancholy that points forward to his landmark ECM work.