Much is made of the difference between European and American Jazz, but the most interesting players are often those with a foot on each shore […] A disciple of Bill Frisell’s twanging, glowing guitar sound, Bro was a member of Paul Motian’s influential Electric Bebop band, and it is Motian’s sparseness and sense of space that dominates here. Christensen and first-call New York bassist Thomas Morgan (another Motian alumnus) are equal partners in a riveting exchange of ideas poised between Europe and America, hovering on the edge of abstraction without ever falling in.
Cormac Larkin, Irish Times
The combination of Bro’s spacious, multi layered guitar sound, with Morgan’s natural, woody bass and Christensen’s crisp, ethereal drums make for an almost mystical, meditative listening experience. Bro, Morgan and Christensen create landscapes of sound that are achingly beautiful, sparse, yet full bodied at the same time.
Mike Gates, UK Vibe
‘Gefion’s’ dedicatee, the late Ib Skovgaard, once wrote ‘lucidity is in the air when guitarist Jakob Bro plays’, and, with this sense of clarity, Bro’s first ECM album as leader takes wing. The first sounds emerge gradually during some three minutes of introduction, and even when the full trio arrives, the harmonic changes seem to happen organically, by mutual consensus, not because a bar line has passed. […] ‘Gefion’does not reveal its secrets quickly, and there is no hurry to this music, but there is great depth. Absence is as powerful as presence for Bro; each phrase is perfectly plucked from the ether.
Jon Carvell, London Jazz News
Jakob Bro hat mit dem kalifornischen Kontrabassisten Thomas Morgan und der norwegischen Drummer-Legende Jon Christensen eine Sound-Sprache entwickelt, die sich dem meditativen Grundton sensibel anpasst […] Bros ballastfreie Gitarrenwolken, Morgans rollender Bass, Christensens sanfter, aber entschiedener Drum-Druck – das bürgt für pure Harmonie.
Matthias Inhoffen, Stereoplay
Bro has been developing a fascinating voice on his own. Here he reaches new heights on his quietly powerful ECM debut as a leader, which finds him in empathic connection with bassist Thomas Morgan and ECM mainstay Jon Christensen on drums. ‘Gefion’, named for a Norse goddess linked with prophecy and harvest, is meditative and mesmerizing, working its sonic approaches and musical strategies to painterly and poetic ends.
Josef Woodard, Jazziz
‘Gefion’ is an important album […] Shards of folkish melody reveal themselves as the rhythm section swirls around and underneath – Morgan inserting his own LaFaro-worthy asides and occasionally keeping time, Christensen dusting the floor à la Motian […] In Bro, new listeners will identify Bill Frisell’s shimmery tone and textural gentility, but the comparisons end there. The younger guitarist homes in on atmosphere with an inesitiy approaching David Torn’s.
Evan Haga, Jazz Times (Editor’s Pick