Rasmus Sørensen - Traits

Rasmus Sørensen is a New York-based pianist, raised in rural Denmark and freshly graduated from the Manhattan School of Music. His musical philosophy reflects suspicion of a modern, “technologically oriented world”, seeking instead “our true nature”, marked by “beauty” and “universal truths”. What this amounts to is an exceedingly mellow piano trio debut, straightahead and sunnily good-natured.

There are surprising turns: the band’s burrow into intriguingly stark percussive terrain midway through the steamily speeding ‘The Heights’, and its staccato, Latin finale; or a spare, skittering passage in ‘Measureless’. Sørensen also touches on contemplative, bittersweet emotion, in his solo start to the ballad ‘Late Spring’, the dreamily introspective ‘Intuitively’ and meditatively tolling ‘A Reminder’ (whose 8½ minutes also finds ample room for Francesco Ciniglio’s abstract, metallic drumkit adventures).

Recorded in FinlandStudio, Aarhus, Denmark, august 16-17 2021

Rasmus Sørensen: piano
Jon Henriksson: double bass
Francesco Ciniglio: drums