Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug and his trio, which includes Dubliner Sean Carpio on drums, have been keeping pretty elevated company in recent years, most notably an ongoing and mutually fruitful relationship with saxophonist Mark Turner.
But for their first release on busy London label, Whirlwind, they return to the trio format, recording ‘live’ in the studio with no retakes or overdubs.
Ploug is part of a generation of guitarists who absorbed as much from Radiohead as they did from Bill Frisell, so while there is all the openness and adventure of an improviser with his own distinctive language, it is informed by a more rugged, indie-rock sensibility, driven forward by Carpio’s subtle, ever-changing grooves.
