2015 · Album
Midwest
Recorded May 2014 · ECM · Produced by Not specified in available sources
Larsen's Violin Transforms Eick's Midwest Vision
Larsen's folk violin adds earthen texture to Eick's lyrical compositions, roughening their edges.
What makes Midwest (2015) distinctive is the presence of Gjermund Larsen, a folk violinist whose raw, textural approach collides with Mathias Eick's chamber jazz sensibility. Eick's compositions arrive as lyrical structures — spare, melodic, quietly introspective — but Larsen's fiddle work grounds them in something earthier, less polished. This is not string arrangements smoothing over the edges. Larsen plays against type, bringing a Scandinavian folk vocabulary into conversation with Mats Eilertsen's bass, Jon Balke's piano, and Helge Norbakken's percussion, and the friction between idioms becomes the album's driving force.
Eick framed Midwest as a conceptual journey — the immigrant encountering unfamiliar terrain and slowly accepting it. Larsen's violin embodies that resistance and accommodation simultaneously. His solos cut across the ensemble with genuine excitement, never decorative, often dissonant against the cooler harmonies surrounding him. Balke and Eilertsen anchor the pieces with minimalist precision, creating space for these collisions rather than filling it. The result feels like chamber music that trusts silence, letting each voice ring before the next enters.
This is Eick's third album, and by this point his compositional voice was established — but Larsen's inclusion marks a clear shift toward folk texture and rustic tone. Reviewers noted the pairing immediately: AllMusic's Thom Jurek heard Larsen as essential to the thematic frame, while The Guardian's Dave Gelly gave the record four stars and praised the violinist's contrast as genuinely exciting. It's neither his debut nor a late-career statement, but rather an album where Eick opened his minimalist world to a collaborator who brought something he couldn't generate alone.
Who's playing
Mats Eilertsendouble bass
Jon Balkepiano
Mathias Eicktrumpet
Helge Norbakkenpercussion
Gjermund Larsenviolin
