SkyDive Trio Sun Sparkle (2018)

"Norway is a pulsing hotbed of jazz creativity and invention and a source of much thats good in cutting-edge European jazz at the moment. Sun Sparkle, the second album by SkyDive Trio, reinforces that perception. This new supergroup power trio brings together Nowegian bassist Mats Eilertsen and compatriot, composer and guitarist Thomas T. Dahl, with Finnish percussionist Olavi Louhivuori. Norway and Finland both border the Arctic Circle and this album has a sort of hypnotic, fluid sensibility that dazzles and mesmerises like a musical Northern Lights. This album has a strong jazz-rock vibe to it on some tracks (what came into my mind at one point was the US band Tool) and tracks like Apollo, with its simple eighth-note bass rhythms and four-to-the-floor drumming, reinforce that idea. Their press release says the band counters jazz subtlety with rock attack, and that is a pretty accurate description". (Londonjazznews.com).