Reviews of the week

The new recording Cellular Songs by Meredith Monk thrills UK and German reviewers

Her use of traditional song categories – exhibited not just in this collection but across her entire output – allows her to pour radical ideas into familiar moulds. On this record, for instance, ‘Lullaby For Lise’ opens with a rocking, lullaby-like piano motif. The solo voice swoops melismatically, in accordance – then drives up through yearning mictrotones, punctuated with little bursting sighs and scatching sounds like bird calls. It’s both comforting and estranging, hypnotic without being exactly sopoforic. Monk’s voice is startingly limpid, belying her 82 years, and her music too sounds timeless.

Lucy Thraves, The Wire

Zellen sind basale Bausteine des Lebens – sie reproduzieren sich, mutieren, kommunizieren und bilden so ein Netzwerk unendlicher Kooperation. Für Meredith Monk ist diese biologische Realität zugleich künstlerisches Prinzip. In ihrem Album ‘Cellular Songs’ entfaltet sie eine vokalmusikalische Topografie, die genau dieses Prinzip der Interaktion und Emergenz hörbar macht. Gemeinsam mit ihren langjährigen musikalischen Partner Allison Sniffin (Vibraphon, Percussion) und John Hollenbeck (Piano, Violine) – beide als kongeniale Kooperationspartner in Monk’s Vokallabor zu begreifen – entwickelt Monk eine Klangarchitektur, die die Grenze zwischen Stimme, Bewegung und Klangraum auflöst. Bereits in den ersten Minuten des Albums wird deutlich, dass Meredith Monk die Stimme als lebendigen Organismus behandelt: Jede Phrase teilt sich, wächst, vervielfacht sich und bildet neue Muster. Aus einem anfänglichen Keimlaut erwächst ein vokales Gewebe, in dem Schichten aus Atem, Silben und Vokalisen sich ineinander verschränken. In ‘Branching’ oder ‘Melt’ wird die Stimme zu einer Art vokaler Membran, die den Klangraum zugleich durchlässig und strukturiert hält. Diese Musik folgt keiner linearen Dramaturgie, sondern einem zellulären Prinzip der Variation – kleinste motivische Elemente durchlaufen metamorphotische Prozesse, bis sie ein eigenständiges klangliches Leben entfalten. Monk und ihr Vocal Ensemble agieren dabei nicht als klassische Sängerinnen, sondern als Vokalarchitektinnen. Ihre Stimmen erzeugen mikrotonale Schwebungen, imitieren Naturprozesse und formen daraus mehrstimmige Texturen, die gleichermaßen präzise und instinktiv wirken. […] Die Transparenz der musikalischen Texturen, die konsequente Offenheit für organische Wachstumsprozesse und die subtile Dramaturgie jedes Stückes machen das Album zu einem Referenzpunkt zeitgenössischer Vokalkunst. Monk zeigt, dass musikalische Komplexität nicht auf Überlagerung, sondern auf Durchhörbarkeit beruht – jede Stimme, jedes Atemgeräusch bleibt Teil eines größeren, atmenden Organismus.

Sebastian Meißner, Sounds and Books

A UK reaction to the album And I heard a voice by Vox Clamantis with works of Arvo Pärt

Conducted by Jaan-Eik Tulve, the Estonian vocal ensemble provides utterly radiant accounts of relatively recent pieces by Pärt (including 2019’s ‘Für Jan Eyck’, the only one with organ accompaniment), but also finds room for 2001’s glorious ‘Nunc dimittis’ and for 1988’s ‘Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen’. Even by ECM’s famously high standards, the recording is superb; close your eyes and it’s easy to imagine you’re sharing the resonant acoustic of the Haapsalu Cathedral along with the choir

Geoff Andrews Notes & Observations

UK and Italian media reactions to the new trio recording Tokyo by Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley and Brian Blade

What is there left to say about the artistry of Muthspiel and a sensibility which is open both to Django Reinhardt and J.S. Bach, Kurt Weill and Keith Jarrett? ‘Tokyo’, Muthspiel’s latest – and excellent – release on ECM, features the Austrian acoustic and electric guitarist together with Colley (b) and Blade (d), eminent fellow-members of Muthspiel’s long-established trio. […] whatever the setting, you can be sure that Muthspiel’s fluid, dynamically adroit capacity for the interplay of the linear and the chordal, the quietly finger-picked and the ringing resonance of beautifully inflected single notes will deliver music of consummate, melodically appealing character. […] he’s also able to dig back into jazz history: ‘Tokyo’ begins with a sprightly take on Jarrett’s ‘Lisbon Stomp’, from the 1967 release ‘Life Between The Exit Signs’ with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. Throughout a recital which has its fair share of reflective pieces (‘Pradela’, ‘Christa’s Dream’, ‘Traversia’ and ‘Weill You Wait’) the quality of the ego-less, finely tuned group interaction is such as to make one realise why the work of this ensemble has precipitated comparisons with the long-classic trio of Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Enjoy!

Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal

Una grazia gentile governa le composizioni e le esecuzioni di Wolfgang Muthspiel, sia che tocchi Ie corde con Ie dita, arpeggiando arabeschi, sia che usi il plettro per costruire luminose piccole frasi in legato. Per farlo c’è bisogno di compagni d’avventure sonore simpatetici, e Iui li ha, in Tokyo (ECM, come i due a seguire) con Scott Colley al basso e Brian Blade alla batteria. Disco splendido, e una traccia, Flight che sembra dettata da Charlie Haden, dalle nuvole.

Guido Festinese, Il Manifesto

The new recording of Johannes Brahms’ op. 51 by the Zehetmair Quartett is acclaimed in a UK magazine

That Zehetmair understands fully the symphonic scope of the composer’s chamber writing is a given, then again he does nothing to overwhelm its delicate mechanisms with pseudo-symphonic weight. This is carefully heard chamber playing of the first order, a quartet breathing and probing together. They play with a honeyed tone that is entirely appropriate to the soundworld, and the pieces themselves are top-drawer Johannes: complex, packed with nuance, full of heart.

Philip Clark, Prospect Magazine

The album Topos by Sokratis Sinopoulos and Yann Keerim enchants British and US reviewers

This release from the Greek duo of lyra player Sinopoulos and pianist Keerim includes six tracks inspired by the Romanian Dances of Béla Bartók. But as the album’s title – the Greek word for place – makes clear, this is most definitely devoted to an exploration of the music of Greece, Romania, Hungary and the Balkans. I could just have easily have included it in one of my ‘But Is It Jazz?’ blogs since, Bartók apart, it occupies a fertile territory between folk, jazz, classical, dance music and sacred music. The sort of thing the label does so well, in other words. (I first heard Sinopoulos’ keening lyra on Charles Lloyd’s Athens Concert – he really does have a distinctive sound, as you’ll find on his own composition Vlachia here.)

Geoff Andrew, Notes & Observations

A mix of Byzantine and Bartok takes place with Sokratis Sinopoulis playing the three stringed violin-like lyra with pianist Yann Keerim. A handful of the tunes are interpretations of the Hungarian composer, with Keerim actually sounding Satie-like on the delicate ‘In One Spot’, while the team is getting elliptical on ‘Sash Dance’. The two get bluesy on ‘Romanian Polka’ and festival on a feisty ‘Fast Dance’. More Hellenistic folk themes are felt on the gentle chords of ‘Vlachia’ and the piano rippling like a stream in Chalkidiki on ‘Valley’. Strolls along rural road.

George W. Harris, Jazz weekly

The album Sun Triptych with works by Dobrinka Tabakova  is acclaimed in a UK music magazine

The first album devoted to her music (6/13) gained numerous plaudits for Dobrinka Tabakova and this ECM follow-up, a further selection of chamber and orchestral pieces (all written from 2000 to 2011), typifies what is a judicious conflation of Central and East European idioms. […] Certainly, the performances here sound as foremidably assured as the line-up ought to suggest, while the spacious sound suits both music and music-making ideally.

Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

The vinyl-reissue of Jan Garbarek and Anouar Brahem’s album Madar within the Luminessence-series

There is plenty to enjoy on this double album and the music is broken down into duo and solo performances as well as the trio performance. Brahem gets ‘Bahia’ to himself spinning out melodic lines on his oud that are as beguiling as they are melodic and Shaukat Hussain’s solo outing on ‘Jaw’ is absorbing. Gabarek and Brahem duet on ‘Sebika’ and the title track with the tenor sounding magisterial, but it the two traditional pieces ‘Sull Lull’ and ‘Qaws’ featuring all three musicians that are the real meat and drink of the album. If Norway meets the Middle East seems an unlikely proposition the seamless blending of cultures heard here is a real delight. Brahem and Hussain will perhaps share the most common ground, but Garbarek has always had an uncanny knack of being able to place himself in any setting and sounding if he belongs. If the saxophonist’s lines don’t always follow any obvious harmonic route, he is able to make his phrases stand alone and rhythmically align perfectly with what is going on around him. Wonderful album that is worth the admission fee for ‘Madar’ and ‘Qaws’ alone, but having said the other tracks all repay repeated listening too.

Nick Lea, Jazz Views

Swiss and Italian reactions to the album Tramonto by the John Taylor Trio

Beim Hören des vorliegenden Live-Mitschnitts bedauert man, im Januar 2002 nicht beim CBSO Centre in Birmingham gewesen zu sein und den Auftritt von John Taylor, Marc Johnson und Joey Baron miterlebt zu haben. CBSO steht für City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra und das Centre verfügt über einen Konzertsaal, der über eine ausgezeichnete Akustik verfügen muss, ein weiterer Grund für das Bedauern. Der Hauptgrund ist jedoch das Trio selbst, das auf der Affiche stand. […] die drei sollten wenige Monate später,  im April 2002, im Rainbow Studio in Oslo das Album ‘Rosslyn’ aufnehmen, das durch vorausgehende Auftritte gleichsam vorbereitet wurde. Nun, bereits in Birmingham, hatte das Trio einen außergewöhnlichen Integrationsgrad erreicht und überzeugt auf den Einspielungen durch ein dichtes Interplay, so wie es von Bill Evans, dem Pionier des integrierten Pianotrios, in dem die Aufteilung zwischen Solist und Begleitern aufgehoben ist, vorgelebt worden war.

Georg Modestin, Jazz’n’more

Un disco che attizza ricordi e rimpianti? ‘Tramonto’, per il magnifico John Taylor al piano accompagnato da Marc Johnson e Joey Baron, dunque una ritmica Usa per il principale dei tasti inglese. Che qui è come se ricevesse, e rendesse, una carica d’energia travolgente, a dispetto del titolo, tra brucianti scatti boppistici, oasi di note rapsodiche e libere, puro lirismo. Dal vivo al Centro CBSO di Birmingham nel gennaio del 2002.

Guido Festinese, Il Manifesto