One half of the long-running European contemporary jazz quartet The Sea (also with guitarist Terje Rypdal and drummer Jon Christensen), pianist Bjørnstad and cellist Darling first recorded as a duo in 1996 with "The River". Although the duo do improvise, they operate very much via a sparse, classical asceticism that happily digests arrangements of compositions by 16th and 17th Century composers alongside their own work. The results are austere and adagio, sometimes (in the case of the "Epigraph" and its three variations) intense and demanding in their simplicity; sometimes ("Wakening", "The Guest") saying very little, very solemnly. ECM collectors with a taste for Oslo's Rainbow Studio at its chilliest will certainly catch a satisfying shiver from Epigraphs; the rest will be relieved to warm their hands along the way on "Song For TKJD" (complete with rich cello overdubs) and "The Lake", two warm spots in an otherwise chilly landscape. --Linton Chiswick
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