Trumpeter Mathias Eick, in the first album released under his own name, focuses all the qualities that have made him a musician to be reckoned with in and around jazz of the last decade. The Door is distinguished by vaulting lyricism and clear-edged melodies, a strong sense of ambient space in the writing, and edge and excitement and openness to improvisation. The 28-year-old Norwegian cites Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Kenny Wheeler, Tomasz Stanko, Arve Henriksen and Nils Petter Molvaer as influences upon his stylistic evolution as a soloist. However it was his own, meanwhile characteristic, sound that prompted the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) to present him the International Jazz Award for New Talent in 2007. The prize included support for an international tour, allowing Eick and musicians to develop their repertoire. The Door was subsequently recorded in Oslo s Rainbow and Cabin Recorders studios in September 2007. Eick s spacious pieces allow plenty of free range for Jon Balke, whose resourcefulness as pianist, always taking the path less trodden, is in evidence throughout the album. Balke s playing, in a rare sideman role, is one of the pleasures of The Door. Orchestrator par excellence in presentations of his own music (particularly with Magnetic North), Balke the pianist is effectively an arranger-in-action here, continually opening up fresh perspectives inside Eick s robust ballads and mid-tempo pieces. Drummer Audun Kleive is another player with deep ECM roots. A former member of Terje Rypdal s Chasers and of Charles Lloyd s touring quartet, he has also had a long association with percussionist Marilyn Mazur. Here he in tandem with bassist Audun Erlien, (previously heard on ECM with Nils Petter Molvaer), developing and telescoping the grooves and pulses. Guest artist Stian Carstensen who appears on three tunes ( Cologne Blues , October and December ) was last heard on ECM playing accordion with Trygve Seim (Different Rivers) is here featured on pedal steel guitar, an instrument whose expressive potential is rarely glimpsed in jazz contexts.