Alex Sjobeck & David Baker - Pictures In Time (2022)

The title of the album acts as both an immediate description and a metaphorical lens through which to interpret its sonic journey. Pictures in Time stands as a collection of vignettes: a series of musical snapshots that describe and evoke the moments, emotions, and experiences in life that transcend time and ancestry. “Alex and I have a rich shared history where we tend to be a constant for one another with the only other constant being our past,” Baker says. “Pictures in Time is a title meant to represent that feeling of being connected to our pasts - how our ancestors and stories of our ancestors trickle down and affect who we are in our present day lives.” In addition to the title’s pensive implications, it also holds a physical element to it. Rather than viewing these scenes and stories in a traditional gallery, the audience must listen to participate in the art form of music, and thus each of the pictures are expressed “in time.”

Musically, Sjobeck and Baker are continuing a rare but richly beautiful musical legacy heralded by duos such as Bill Evans and Eddie Gomez, Hank Jones and Charlie Haden, Nitai Hershkovitz and Avishai Cohen, and Kenny Barron and multiplicity of bassists. Steeped in this tradition, Sjobeck and Baker step forward combining it with elements of classical, folk, semitic music, and pop to make something that is uniquely theirs that is set apart in the current musical environment.