Reviews of the week

The album And I heard a voice by Vox Clamantis with works of Arvo Pärt is hailed in a leading UK music magazine

In a July 2020 Gramophone review, the late Ivan Moody drew attention to the Estonian vocal ensemble’s exceptional clarity, precision and sheer musicianship. All these elements are displayed in abundance on this latest release. Alongside clarity and precision, one is also drawn to the lush, almost sensuous quality that belongs to the ensemble’s sound, heard for example in the delicately weighted and balanced opening entries to Pärt’s setting of the ‘Nunc dimittis’: fragile melodic fragments as if snatched from the clutches of silence. […] Add to this the rounded, generous acoustics of Haapsalu Cathedral, Estonia, and this recording places Vox Clamantis right up there with some of the best interpretations of Pärt’s sacred choral music, rivalling even The Hilliard Ensemble’s best moments.

Pwill ap Sión, Gramophone

UK and US media on the new album Sun Triptych with works by Dobrinka Tabakova

The follow up to Tabakova’s acclaimed ECM New Series debut, ‘String Paths’ is another exceptional recording from the British-Bulgarian composer, and every bit as intoxicating as the earlier album, and if anything embraces a wider range both in terms of the compositions and the expressiveness in which they are performed. Soloists Maxim Rysanov, Roman Mints and Kristina Blaumane return from the ‘String Paths’ recording with Rysanov and Mints featured in some delightful and thought-provoking duets. The opening ‘Whispered Lullaby’ seemingly sets the tone for the album with Tabakova’s wonderful harmonies and gently flowing melodies the order of the day with Rysanovv’s viola a fine voice when paired with pianist Dasol Kim. ‘Suite in Jazz Style’ is a cleverly developed piece in three distinct movements in which viola and piano swing somewhat lugubriously, complete with walking bassline in ‘I: Talk’, that retains that air of spontaneity associated with jazz, while ‘II: Nocturnal’ takes on a journey via a breathtakingly beautiful ballad. The suite concludes with the appropriately lively ‘III: Dance’ replete with an ingenious rhythmic momentum that carries the piece through to its joyous conclusion. […] In a fitting finale to the album, as well as the suite, Tabakova utilises the Concert Orchestra in an all enveloping close that brings forth the colour and light of the preceding movements that embodies that gentle conclusion of another day, and the feelings and memories that it may hold. A beautiful album that has not ventured far from my CD player since its arrival.

Nick Lea, Jazz Views

The more I listen to the music of Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova (b. 1980), the more convinced I am that not only is she a fine composer, but more specifically a masterful ‘sound technician’, or better yet a ‘sound alchemist’. The way she can completely distort harmony to the breaking point and then suddenly, magically, turn it all into a thing of radiant beauty is quite intriguing. […] Mind you, not all of her music is quite like this, but when it is it’s quite effective and infectious. Nor is Dobrinka Tabakova simply a one-trick pony, as pieces like ‘Suite in Jazz Style’ and ‘Spinning a Yarn’ clearly demonstrate. But she is truly in her element when applying her unique shape-shifting style.

Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel

An Italian reaction to the new trio recording Tokyo by Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley and Brian Blade

A tratti, mentre scorre l’album Tokyo di Muthspiel, Colley e Blade, si ha la sensazione che questo trio non stia semplicemente suonando ma piuttosto inventando, attraverso un attento lavoro collettivo, un personale linguaggio di sopravvivenza musicale. […] ‘Tokyo’ non racconta un luogo, ma un modo di stare insieme nella musica, un viaggio che sfugge all’ovvio e consegna al jazz un album raffinato, a volte straniante ma necessario. La compostezza dei tre musicisti, anche negli episodi meno facili, racconta del clima collaborativo e sintonico che percorre tutto l’album.

Riccardo Talamazzi, Offtopic Magazine

The album Tramonto by the John Taylor Trio is acclaimed in an Austrian magazine

In den fünf dargebotenen Stücken entwickelt das Trio einen unglaublich dichten Sound. Es war eine perfekt eingespielte Band: Jeder der drei Musiker durfte sich einbringen und in dem teils bekannten Repertoire eigene Glanzpunkte setzen. Allen voran fasziniert Taylors Spiel, das in allen Phasen – sei es bei schnelleren Bob-Tunes oder mit Behutsamkeit in den Balladen – intensive Momente erzeugt. Johnson und Baron bleiben natürlich ebenfalls nichts schuldig, und man hört deutlich, wie sehr es den Musikern selbst Spaß gemacht hat.

Christian Bakonyi, Concerto

UK reactions to the new album Libro Primo by Rolf Lislevand

The transitions are admirable: one’s barely aware of passing from one work or composer to another. (The framing of Bernardo Gianoncelli’s ‘Corrente’ by two Kapsberger toccatas is especially satisfying.) A special feature is the juxtaposition of pieces for archlute and for the deeper-toned chitarrone […] Perhaps unsurprisingly (given the project’s premise and the circumstances of the recording), there is less overt showmanship on display than I recall hearing in his earlier recordings. The emphasis is on intimacy and interiority, and absolutely none the worse for that: to the contrary, Lislevand on his own is a pleasure to listen to.

Fabrice Fitch, Gramophone

An exponent of the archlute and the chitarrone, examining the works written for the lute and its variants by the 16th and 17th century composers Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger, Giovanni Paolo Foscarini, Bernardo Gianoncelli and Diego Ortiz. Lislevand’s sleeve essay explains the revolution in which these composers were involved, and he brings them into the present day with free, fluid interpretations that make this music ageless. His own riveting ‘Passacaglia al Modo Mio’ is both a salute and a declaration of possibilities. Anyone with a fondness for Davy Graham or Sandy Bull will enjoy this enormously.

Richard Williams, The Blue Moment

The vinyl reissue of Changing Places by the Tord Gustavsen Trio within the Luminessence- series is welcomed by a UK reviewer

Widely acclaimed at the time of release the music has lost none of its lustre twenty years on, and the sheer delicacy of a composition such as ‘Your Eyes’ still has the power to captivate. In similar vein is the quiet and beautifully melodic ballad ‘Where Breathing Starts’, and ‘Song of Yearning’ reveals a remarkable empathy from the trio and drummer Jarle Vespestad recognises the need to take a back seat as the interplay between Gustavsen and Harald Johnsen deepens, and the bassist takes the lead in a lovely solo superbly supported by pianist. If at first glance it appears that Gustavsen’s music may not have travelled a vast distance in the intervening years, he has given us a discography packed with intense and intensely interactive trio recordings that remain a high point of the continued development of European jazz.

Nick Lea, Jazz Views

A US music magazine on the vinyl reissue of Marilyn Crispell’s album Amaryllis within the Luminessence-series

‘Amaryllis’, pianist Marilyn Crispell’s 2000 ECM release, showcases both hallmarks: the sonic signature and spontaneous improvisation. Crispell is joined by bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Motian. […] ‘Amaryllis’ blends original compositions by the three players with improvisations so rigorous they feel through-composed. ‘Amaryllis’ drifts like a restless spirit, each track shifting in intensity and hue. It unfolds as a sprawling dialogue, by turns languid and playful, sun-dappled and shadowed. […] ‘Amaryllis’ is a masterwork, and the recording is stunning.

Ken Micallef, Stereophile