Arve Henriksen - "Cartography"

"Migration" is one hell of an intense track, not in the sense that it doubles you over, but mainly because it serves as an anchor piece in Cartography. This kind of singled-out presence on an Arve Henriksen release is fairly unheard of; not usually does this meandering trumpeter place something this solid and concrete among all the other fuzzed-out smatterings of brass-sounding-like-cool-mountain-flutes and natural swoops of indigenous sound. "Migration" has a tribal, cyclical rhythm that puts it above all this, and it grabs your attention early as the third track. There is certainly a reason for this placement, as Cartography has a strong sense of narrative about it. In fact, Henriksen's penchant for vocal utilization takes place directly before "Migration." Here--in "Before and Afterlife"--he speaks (strangely) of resisting the temptation of the city and moving "east into the forest and mountains where life's desires tore us apart." I suppose "Migration" is where we are torn limb from limb.

Once you gather your limbs and move on from this point, you reach familiar territory again. You are back to the Arve Henriksen of the Rune Grammofon label (I suppose the move to ECM is somewhat of a Judas-move, but whatever) and back to an album that is only listenable through a pair of quality headphones. "Migration" sticks with you, though, like a big "X" on an album that is supposedly, if we take the title literally, about the study of maps. Henriksen studies them well, and if all he does here is send us off from track three to fend for ourselves, then perhaps that is enough.