Mathias Eick is a Norwegian jazz musician, his main instrument is the trumpet, but he also plays double bass, vibraphone, piano and guitar. He has performed with several famous music groups and musicians, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Jaga Jazzist, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Jacob Young, Iro Haarla, Motif, Trygve Seim, Jan Gunnar Hoff Group, Audun Kleive, Morten Abel, Bertine Zetlitz, Thomas Dybdahl, Julius Winger, Manu Katché and Lars Horntveths, etc.
Eick has a long and colorful list of influences: Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Kenny Wheeler, Thomasz Stanko, Chet Baker, Arve Henriksen, Nils Petter Molv..r, Jon Hassel, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Bill Frisell, Jan Garbarek, Jon Christensen, Jaco Pastorius, Joni Mitchell, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Keith Jarret, J.S. Bach, Police, Sting, ECM, Chick Corea, Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach, Metallica, Flaming Lips, Steely Dan, Rufus Wainwright and his music sounds like a nice blending of Miles Davis and Jan Garbarek.
Mainly meditative and contemplative, Eick’s music is very spacy, but expressive, it’s like a soundtrack and the main characters are these songs. The parallels with Garbarek’s works are undeniable, but this is a wide and beautiful universe and Eick bring to life beautiful fragments of it.
Eick’s band mates are: Torstein Lofthus – drums, Gard Nilssen – drums, Andreas Ulvo – Keyboards, and Audun Erlien – electric bass.
It may seems cold, maybe even distant, but actually “Skala” is a very intimate and friendly release.
