The wind in Medvind Modvind can push us forward, hold us back, or leave us to drift. TINGO finds all three in its music.
April Records
Tim Ewé – Trumpet & Cornet; Cecilie Strange – Tenor Saxophone & Percussion; Benjamin Gower-Poole – Double Bass; Per Rask – Drums & Percussion
Recorded at Studio Folkhemmet, Unnaryd, Sweden, November 3rd–5th, 2025
You can hear the wind in TINGO’s Medvind Modvind. That’s headwind and tailwind. It’s there shaking leaves and branches with the bass and drums. Down in the trumpet’s low register, it’s a breeze coming off the lake, and that saxophone drifts over everything. The record sounds like four players standing out in it, enjoying the weather.
Nordic folk and jazz is what the band says it’s after, but there’s a touch of Elizabethan music in the way the two horns begin together over a single-note bass line. Add a simple folk melody, a jazz groove, and you can imagine Shakespeare finding something to like here. Drummer Per Rask keeps tapping underneath, always present, pulling the tune along.
In “Halling etter Thorvald Tronsgård,” the two horns imitate a madrigal, their lines moving together over the repeating bass notes. As the bass and drums grow louder, the horns split off in different directions. The trumpet drops into a low moan, feeling his way around the melody before growing louder and more assertive. He hollers at the moon, the shaky opening giving way to something a lot more joyful.
Saxophonist Cecilie Strange has a carefree way of playing tenor, her lines floating over the band in ‘Haresprånget.’ There’s a little of Paul Desmond’s easy sound in her playing, though she can soar when she wants to. Bassist Benjamin Gower-Poole picks his notes out gingerly, his woody, conversational solo set against tight, loud drumming.
Strange and trumpeter Tim Ewé met on a train between Odense and Copenhagen in 2019 and discovered a shared interest in Nordic folk music. TINGO grew out of that meeting. They weave around each other in “Stilhed,” pausing and approaching the melody from different angles while staying in close harmony. Strange wanders from low notes into the upper register with ease. Gower-Poole’s bass solo has a conversational feel, the phrases stretching and pausing rather than settling into a regular rhythm.
On the last day of recording, TINGO invited an audience into Studio Folkhemmet in the Småland pine forests to capture the title track “Medvind Modvind” live. There’s a splash of childish singing at first before bass and drums bring in a melody caught in the wind, the horns rocking back and forth. Strange’s sax floats above the rhythm. Ewé follows with his bright, clear trumpet.
The wind in Medvind Modvind can push us forward, hold us back, or leave us to drift. TINGO finds all three in its music.
