The new acoustic trio recording Cold Sun features Yelena Eckemoff on piano, Mads Vinding on double bass and Peter Erskine on drums. The session paints sonar pictures of the lingering winter season. Eckemoff s original compositions converse with the incredible work of the celebrated Danish bassist Mads Vinding and are aided by Peter Erskine s drumming brilliance. Flawless interplay between these three fantastic musicians beholds a mutual understanding and concord on an exceedingly deep level. The margins between improvisation and composition in this refined music are almost indistinguishable; the structures are consistently complex, intricate and even epic. The music on Cold Sun flows genuinely and demonstrates not only the compositional talents of Eckemoff, but also the extraordinary interplay between the trio. Uniqueness of this striking music and the unsurpassed mastery of its performance make Cold Sun a stand out on the front row of the finest modern jazz and chamber records out today. --Chris DiGirolamo/Two For the Show Media, June 25, 2010There s ECM music lingering beyond the ECM gates. Perhaps the bleakest picture of winter since Reds, this Russian composer paints her impressionistic portrait as only one afraid of being sent to Siberia can do. A first rate piece of modern, chamber jazz for the sitting down jazz lover. --MIDWEST RECORD, Volume 33/Number 249Pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff works in that rarified area between modern classical chamber music and progressive jazz...While many of her albums have tended towards a classical vein, Cold Sun provides an exploration of improvisation within the setup of the jazz piano trio. Built around a winter theme, the album finds the three players exploring a sparse, almost desolate sonic territory. What stands out most in these wide-open spaces is the tremendous chemistry between the musicians. With Danish bassist Mads Vinding and drummer Peter Erskine two veterans who work with the best jazz company the band communicates in a way that evokes an easy mood and the sounds of nature. The bass becomes the rhythm of feet falling in snow, while cymbals mimic breath or wind, and the piano traces a landscape from runs sloping up and down the keyboard.  Four extended pieces juxtapose with six slightly shorter, more traditionally 'jazzy' songs. 'After Blizzard' is a kind of shifting aural painting that evolves over ten minutes, changing tempo and feel as it goes. Eckemoff provides swelling glissandi and other graceful ornamentations, while Erskine contributes an eclectic groove to the changes of the song. 'Scents of Christmas,' by contrast, strongly suggests pianist Bill Evans' classic trio, with its easy, ruminative piano, strong leading bass voice, and bone dry cymbal work.  The line between the melodies themselves and the improvisation is often hard to distinguish, but they're both clearly defined. Individual solos are fairly brief, and the result is that the nuances and personality of each musician shines out at almost any given point, lending tremendous nuance and tenderness. Eckemoff has both the ability to let a moment of silence stretch time between her phrases and the appreciation to let her sidemen ornament the quiet in their own way. Between laying rock solid grooves, Vinding often solos high up on the bass, imparting a sound like a pizzicato cello. And Erskine always seems to be doing something to build the atmosphere, as he drops ephemeral suggestions of time that shape without constraints.  Lovers of the great piano trios found on the ECM label (such as those led by pianists Bobo Stenson, Tord Gustavsen, and Marcin Wasilewski) will find a lot to like in this potentially overlooked self production. But so will anyone who enjoys relaxing music with some depth to it. It's music that goes well with good wine, firelight, or the sight of snow outside. --By Warren Allen. Published on All About Jazz, August 26, 2010