Ebba Åsman's trombone has always given her music an immediately recognisable centre. On When You Know, that instrument is joined more prominently by her own voice, making the record feel like a conversation between two different forms of breath. One sings words; the other stretches melody into long, smoky lines.
Åsman's jazz background remains obvious, but the album is less interested in demonstrating improvisational fluency than in creating atmosphere. Co-producing with Lucy Liebe, she folds the trombone into electronic ambience, understated soul rhythms and nocturnal textures that occasionally recall Saint Germain or the more restrained side of Massive Attack. The electronics rarely announce themselves; they alter the space around the acoustic instruments.
That approach distinguishes the record from Be Free. The trombone still leads, but Åsman's singing gives the compositions another melodic axis, and the two often seem to complete one another's phrases. Rather than treating the horn as a solo instrument placed over songs, When You Know integrates its tone into the same haze as voice, keyboards and electronic rhythm.
The consistency is also the principal limitation. The tempos remain subdued, the production stays soft-edged and the album occasionally needs a sharper disruption to distinguish one mood from the next. A sudden rhythmic break, harsher electronic texture or more aggressive brass arrangement might have given the quieter passages greater contrast.
Still, the restraint is fundamental to the record's character. Åsman's trombone can enter almost imperceptibly, shadow a vocal line and then continue after the words have ended. Those transitions between voice and brass are where When You Know is most convincing: the same column of air seems to change instruments without breaking the thought.
GENRE: Jazz / Electro
RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2025
PRODUCED BY: Lucy Liebe & Ebba Åsman
LABEL: Dorado Records
RATING: 7/10