Saxophonist Froy Aagre is yet another rising star from the fertile Norwegian jazz scene. “Cycle Of Silence” is her third album following own label releases “Katalyse” (2004) and “Countryside” (2007). Signing to ACT with their international distribution network should bring her work to a wider audience. “Cycle Of Silence” has certainly attracted a good deal of favourable critical attention here in the U.K.

Aagre’s music sounds typically Norwegian. Think of all the Scandi jazz clichés you’d attach to Jan Garbarek and you can apply them equally here too. Aagre’s music is frequently beautiful, has a haunting pictorial quality and although indisputably jazz tends to steer well clear of conventional swing and soloing. Instead the focus is on melody, mood, colour and texture with some fine ensemble playing by a highly talented young band (plus occasional guests) with Aagre’s own playing very much the focus.

The saxophonist actually spent three years in England studying at the Birmingham Consevatoire and also visited Argentina on an exchange visit, where she found herself playing tango. These influences aren’t immediately apparent in her music but are more subliminal. Aagre mentions fellow saxophonists Garbarek, John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon as inspirational figures and cites Bach, Schoenberg and Messiaen as her favourite classical composers.

For “Cycle Of Silence” Aagre is joined by pianist Andreas Ulvo (who also plays with trumpeter Mathias Eick’s group as well as leading his own Epple Trio), bassist Audun Ellingsen and drummer Freddy Wike. Distinctive guest appearances come from cellist Sigrun Eng, trombonist Oyvind Braekke and french horn player Trude Eick (any relation I wonder). Aagre herself concentrates entirely on soprano saxophone (she also plays tenor), the smaller horn now being her primary source of musical expression.

Aagre’s writing is inspired by nature and by observations made on her travels. “Here I focussed on space and quiet passages within the compositions” she says, before going on to talk of “the notion of space through movement and cinematic sweeps and stillness.” All these qualities can be heard in her music. Aagre’s pieces are often centred around very simple, folk like melodies which she sketches in her pocket notebook. Harmony and structure are developed later and Aagre also leaves plenty of room for group improvisation in an attempt to blur the lines between the spontaneous and the composed. Her quartet have been playing together for six years and have a strong group identity which is essential to this process. The complex rhythmic backgrounds to her pieces contrast well with the simplicity of many of the themes and space and silence are important components in her writing, hence the album title.

The opening “Steam Train” sounds nothing like you might expect it to. Inspired by the rail journey between Oslo and Bergen it doesn’t, er, steam along as you might expect. Instead Aagre’s soprano and Eng’s cello add a melancholy edge. This is a musical depiction of somebody gazing wistfully out of the window at a beautiful but probably rain sodden landscape. The rhythms may occasionally suggest the passage of a train but essentially this is chamber jazz with a profound pictorial quality.

The mood continues into the episodic “Long Distance"which begins as a kind of waltz contrasting the airy qualities of Aagre’s soprano with the low register rumblings of Braekke’s trombone. In the tune’s second section Aagre is at her most Garbarek like, shadowed by Ulvo’s glacial piano and Wike’s delightfully detailed drum and cymbal work. A freer section follows that brings Ellingsen’s bass to the fore before all is resolved in typically lyrical fashion.

“Words Of Love” is delightful undulating ballad full of delicate, sensual soprano shadowed by lyrical piano and delicate drumming.

“Atoms” adds a touch of urgency for the first time through Ellingsen’s insistent bass groove but like so many of Aagre’s compositions the mood quickly shifts to something more gently abstract and exploratory even though the groove does return again by the end.

“Lost Connection” broods atmospherically and incorporates the sound of Eick’s french horn plus some doomy piano chording. The following “Siberia” is another of Aagre’s observational tunes, a depiction of the snowy peaks and desolate tundra as seen from a plane flying above them. It’s convincingly cinematic, you can almost feel the chill, with Eng’s cello an appropriately atmospheric addition to the sonic palette.

“Slow Motion” is well named, unhurried and meditative it also deploys Eng’s cello and moves from a chamber music like formality to a more abstract passage featuring Ellingsen’s bass. By way of contrast “View From Venus” is gently whimsical with some delightfully playful exchanges between Aagre and drummer Wike.

The eight minute title track is altogether more serious and constitutes the album’s stand out cut. Here the glory goes to pianist Ulvo as much as to Aagre herself. His playing is beautifully lyrical on a gorgeous passage for solo piano and rhythmically inventive elsewhere as the piece builds momentum and takes on something of a Latin inflection. The composer’s soprano is typically lithe and sinuous but it’s the pianist who takes the honours here.

“Neverending Journey” ends the album on a suitably elegiac note in a beautifully serene piece for soprano and piano with subtle colourings from Eng on cello.

There’s no doubt that “Cycle Of Silence ” deserves the praise lavished upon it. Lovingly composed, arranged and performed it speaks with a quiet authority. Advocates of the “Nordic Tone” will love it and the album is yet another from the ACT catalogue that should appeal to the “Late Junction” audience.

If there is a criticism of the album it would be that it’s rather one paced and those that require their jazz to swing would point to it frequently sounding becalmed. Also Aagre could be accused of sounding a little too much like her compatriot Jan Garbarek but Garbarek’s legion of fans, and I include myself here, are likely to find much to enjoy in Aagre’s music. There is a quiet eloquence here that reveals more with each new listening.

To close on something of an aside I notice that Aagre guested with the Australian piano trio Trichotomy (under their other guise of Misinterprotato) when she played the 2009 Brisbane Jazz Festival. I bet that would have been worth seeing.

Aagre’s only scheduled date in the UK at the present time will take place at Ronnie Scott’s, London on March 8th 2010 and represents the UK launch of “Cycle Of Silence”.

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