Though she has a longstanding relationship with the Brooklyn Jazz Underground Ensemble and its imprint, Danish bassist Anne Mette Iversen has resided in Berlin since 2012. For Invincible Nimbus, the second album by her Ternion Quartet, Iversen incorporated concepts from fugues, Olivier Messiaen, and theorist Nicolas Slonimsky into an improvisational setting. The results are delivered by a rare blend of trombone (Geoffroy De Masure) and alto saxophone (Silke Eberhard), together with the leader’s bass and Roland Schneider’s drums.
Both the sound and musical interaction of the Ternion Quartet evoke two other famous pianoless quartets, those of Ornette Coleman and Gerry Mulligan. Iversen’s compositions feature rich counterpoint between the horns, with the bassist often adding a third voice to a theme, as in Mulligan’s early recordings. The occasional stop-start melodies are reminiscent of Coleman’s early work. Eberhard and De Masure play with an enthusiasm that often recalls Don Cherry and Coleman. It doesn’t hurt that Iversen lays down some solid double-stop grooves too.
