Moskus are a trio of piano, drums and bass, though they’ll hop onto some other instruments- keyboards, organs, vibraphones or recorders- on a whim. But at its core it remains three skilled musicians performing, mostly improvising, around each other in a manner that’s comfortable, almost cosy, and quite playful at times.

The clap-along “Irsk Setter” is one of the brightest tracks, with a poppy energy that’s halfway to making it an odd crossover radio hit, but other tracks are more sanguine, exuding the slightly smoking-sounding jazz tones in pieces like “Sang til C”. The vibes- literally- on “Min venns skaperverk” place us firmly in a quirky chamber jazz world. Particularly in the second half, many of the tracks are short- over half the tracks here are under three minutes long- giving us concise little patterns that are a touch under-baked at times, improvised melodic ideas being casually batted about and thrown away rather than really explored.

The track called “(_ ,)” is particularly sweet thanks to the judicious use of Hans Hulbækmo’s musical saw, sounding decidedly theremin-like when given preferential solo treatment.

Overall, it feels quite unchallenging. Musically the root concept behind pieces like the odd-stepping-rhythmed “Eventyrdagene” are interesting exercises, but the rest is something that sounds like it was more complex to play than it was to listen to (well of course that’s generally true but it feels even more the case here, if you see what I mean).