Reviews of the week

The freshly released duo-recording Reaching For The Moon by Elina Duni with Rob Luft gets early acclaim in the UK

On ‘Reaching for the Moon’, Elina Duni and Rob Luft strip their collaboration down to its most essential form: voice and guitar. After the textured, ensemble-driven landscapes of their earlier quartet recordings, this third outing together feels intimate, nocturnal, and quietly daring. Put simply, this is a listening experience of sublime beauty. […] Her work often draws on Balkan folk traditions while embracing jazz, chanson, and beyond, and here she leans fully into that multilingual, cross-cultural identity. The programme is striking in its breadth: from Irving Berlin’s classic title track to Ornette Coleman’s ‘Lonely Woman,’ via Gabriel Faure, Pino Daniele, and traditional songs from Kosovo. Yet rather than feeling eclectic for its own sake, the album unfolds with a quiet internal logic, guided by mood, atmosphere, and a recurring sense of moonlit reflection. […] Even the medley of film themes by Shigeru Umebayashi and Krzysztof Komeda becomes a wordless meditation, with Duni’s voice floating like another instrument. If there is a defining quality to Reaching for the Moon, it is its atmosphere. Produced by Manfred Eicher, the album carries the hallmark spaciousness associated with ECM: every note feels placed with care, every silence meaningful. The result is music that feels suspended in time – hushed, luminous, and deeply affecting. Ultimately, Duni and Luft combine perfectly here, casting a magical spell for this listener.

Mike Gates, UK Vibe (Five stars)

The new recording of works by Prokofiev, Schnittke and Pärt with the Duo Gazzana is welcomed by reviewers in the US and Italy

A fine mix of chamber music pieces by 20th century composers living and working under the Soviet umbrella, who eschewed the pitfall of experimentation and innovation simply for the sake of novelty. […] these three composers simply imposed their own unique mindset and self-determination on the existing laws of music with innovative yet deep-seated results. The Duo Gazzana, Natascia Gazzana (violin) and Raffaella Gazzana (piano), approach these works with an inherent respect for the past and in doing so well capture and project the sensation of timelessness and permanance this music extends.

Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel

Con il loro tratteggio severo e solenne, lontano da eccessi retorici e sentimentali Natascia, violino e Raffaella, pianoforte, affrontano con grande impegno e rappresentano in modo magistrale con profondo vigore espressivo l’incantato fervore visionario e l’introspezione poetica dell’universo sonoro del compositore estone. Acclamato a livello internazionale per l’originalità dei programmi proposti con prevalenza di autori del ventesimo secolo e l’eccelsa qualità esecutiva, il Duo Gazzana si distingue per il suo eclettismo interpretativo che consente loro di affrontare con impressionante disinvoltura autori quali Dallapiccola, Kõrvits, Ligeti, Messiaen, Schnittke, Silvestrov. Il presente nuovo CD della ECM include anche musiche di Prokofiev e Schnittke. Impressionante il contrasto fra l’anelito spirituale di Arvo Pärt e quello più ideologico e mondano di Sergej Prokofiev. Le due sorelle illuminano in modo esemplare il carattere intimo e malinconico che percorre le ‘Five Melodies op.35 a’.

Paolo Eustachi, Colonne Sonore

In questo progetto, la dimensione interpretativa diventa centrale. Il duo costruisce un percorso coerente che non si limita alla semplice esecuzione, ma cerca di mettere in luce le connessioni emotive tra i diversi autori. Il risultato è un’esperienza d’ascolto che invita alla riflessione e all’immersione in un mondo sonoro altamente variegato e ricco di sfumature. L’album si presenta così come un viaggio attraverso pagine musicali che raccontano, in modo indiretto ma intenso, la fragilità e la forza dell’esperienza umana nel contesto del Novecento.

Daniela Ricupati, Fidelity News

A further US reaction to the recently released album Thee They Thy by Judith Berkson with Trevor Dunn and Gerald Cleaver

Here she sticks exclusively to piano in a more or less jazz-oriented setting, but some of the tunes do go against the grain. The album opens with the stately ‘Slow,’ a fully notated, funereal ballad with a beautifully sorrowful melody free from ornamentation, with the rhythm section gently girding the shapes laid out by the leader’s piano chords, but the album takes an emotional leap with Berkson’s adaptation of the traditional cantorial song ‘V’shamru,’ where her voice and the band open up, creating a kind of levitational force that renders the performance closer to a trance embroidered by a gorgeous, yearning piano solo solo and an arco solo by Dunn oozing with sadness. She brings jazzy elasticity to 12-tone writing on her piece ‘Torque,’ refusing to let serialist parameters box her in. Her solo, with its electrifying interplay between left-hand stabs and high velocity right-handed exploration, is followed by some wide-open vocal improvisation. Berkson reins it back in on ‘Dust,’ articulating its four-note melody with exquisite patience over chords that unfold with supreme patience. ‘Notice’ is even more sparse, the simple phrase ‘I notice’ repeated ad nauseam at the beginning until the accelerating tension and interactivity of the trio overtakes the voice, with Cleaver delivering a typically stunning solo within the flow of the tune’s attractively stubborn plod. (Cleaver also gets a lovely solo feature on ‘Cleav’). Berkson follows up with the jaunty title piece: after some spry wordless vocal lines, she reinforces her improvisational prowess on piano over frenetic activity between Cleaver and Dunn.

Peter Margasak, Nowhere

An Italian reaction to the album Mountain Call by Miroslav Vitous

Il risultato finale è un album felicemente composito in cui ciò che forse conta più di tutto è l’operazione svolta da Vitous per assemblare materiale diverso, che però verosimilmente nei suoi intenti si prestava fin dall’inizio a questo tipo di convivenza. Missione compiuta, quindi.

Alberto Bazzurro, Musica Jazz

The new duo recording Memento by Marilyn Crispell and Anders Jormin is acclaimed in the US and Italy

Melodic grace has become increasingly central to the gifted pianist’s work, and the demeanor of this reflective duet with the esteemed Swedish bassist Anders Jormin feels like an apex of sorts. The music’s emotional message – which is triggered by time passing, lives lost and memories nurtured – is a reminder to prioritize contemplation. From the four instantly composed pieces that open the album to the stark musings that dot its landscape, every move in this clutch of ballads celebrates awareness. Jormin is a choice partner for such a landscape. In this duo, setting the rich wooden tones and upper-register arco of his well-recorded instrument speak volumes when it comes to portraying melancholy. The pair prove their simpatico in several spots, but the airy exchange of phrases on ‘Embracing The Otherness’ is breathtaking.

Jim MacNie, Downbeat

Crispell (a Creative Music Studio alumni and 2025 NEA Jazz Master) teams up with Sweden’s most benevolent bassist, Anders Jormin (Bobo Stenson, Charles Lloyd, Tomasz Stańko) at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in July 2025, within the ever present gaze of Manfred Eicher and ‘Memento’ becomes a lasting thing of beauty available to anyone willing to let go the wheel that keeps us spinning madly and listen. Listen intently, because the underlying beauty of creations like the pianist’s ‘The Beach at Newquay,’ the warmth of her memories of Gary Peacock, ‘Dragonfly,’ (surely one of her most satisfying ventures), and the majesty inherent in the duo’s opening co-composition ‘For the Children,’ is that it is our beauty too. That is the magic of ‘Contemplation in D.’ That is the alchemy of Crispell’s shimmering  ‘Memento’ and the sparse, otherworldliness of ‘Embracing the Otherness,’ wherein silence plays its part, making the duo a trio for three-and-a-half exquisite minutes. Time is of the essence. And with ‘Memento’ Crispell and Jormin bequeath us that most valuable thing we take for granted: time. Time to contemplate and correct. To wonder and heal. To extract from ourselves those things we’ve buried either because of inconvenience, persona, politics, or culture. Lay those things aside and warm by the soft fire that holds ‘Memento’ aloft.

Mike Jurkovic, All About Jazz

Ad unire la pianista americana e il contrabbassista svedese non è solo una comune sensibilità musical, ma anche un’estetica quasi metafisica, sacrale, nella concezione dello spazio sonoro. L’incontro tra i due strumenti diviene così, di volta in volta, una meditazione, una riflessione sulla luce e sulle sfumature che questa proietta sulle cose, una descrizione della natura che, anche nei passaggi più apparentemente didascalici si manifesta come significante che riverbera stati d’animo nel vuoto.

Alessandro Hellman, Rockerilla

The album Watersong by Savina Yannatou with Primavera en Salonico and Lamia Bedioui enchants a German reviewer

Dieses Album sprüht nur so vor Kreativität. Mit 67 Jahren und unzähligen Alben strahlt die famose griechische Sängerin Yannatou nach wie vor eine kraftvolle Energie aus, die Zuhörende sprachlos zurücklässt. Gemeinsam mit der Weltmusikformation Primavera en Salonico und der tunesischen Sängerin Bedioui widemt sies ich auf ihrem neuesten Werk dem Thema Wasser in all seinen klanglichen Facetten und kreiert ein wahres avantgardistisches Feuerwerk an musikalischen Einfällen und Gesangskunst. Ein Highlight ist sicherlichdie Verschmelzung des afroamerikanischen Gospelsongs ‘Wade In The Water’ mit dem ägyptischen Traditional ‘Allah Musau’, bei der die beiden Sängerinnen zu einem begeisternden improvisierten Duett anheben.

Erik Prochnow, Folker

The album Patternmaster by the Mark Turner Quartet thrills Italian and German reviewers

È un disco da avere. Notevolissima anche la qualità della ripresa, eseguita presso lo studio La Buissonne, nella quale una certa assertiva asciuttezza sembra scavare il suono dal pieno, stagliandolo in aria.

Sandro Cerini, Musica Jazz

Es ist bemerkenswert, wie dicht und trotzdem locker gewebt diese Musik daherkommt.  Da sind die beiden Bläserstimmen, Mark Turner am Tenor und Jason Palmer an der Trompete, die die Motive zweistimmig ausdeuten, einander umspielen und immer wieder in schönem Einklang einmünden, bevor sie zum Solo abheben. Nicht weniger wichtig ist die Rhythm-Section aus Joe Martin am Standbass und Jonathan Pinson an den Drums, die sich weniger als Taktgeber, denn als höchst eigenständige Begleiter und somit Komplettierer dieser Musik verstehen. So wirkt Mark Turners Musik vielschichtig und niemals eindimensional.

Tilman Urbach, Stereo

The duo recording Topos by Sokratis Sinopoulos and Yann Keerim is recommended in a German music magazine

Dieses Album strahlt etwas Unwiderstehliches aus. Eine Magie, die von Beginn an tief berührt. ‘Heimat’ oder ‘Heimatland’ bedeutet der griechische Titel des Erstlingswerks des Meisters auf der Lyra Sinopoulos und des Pianisten Keerim. Die beiden griechischen Künstler verstehen unter dem Titel aber vor allem das Verschmelzen ihrer musikalischen Identitäten und die tiefe Verbindung zwischen ihnen. Und diese Harmonie hört man vom ersten Ton an. Ihre zehn Instrumentalstücke basieren auf Béla Bartoks ‘Rumänischen Volkstänzen’ und vereinen Folktraditionen mit der Musik der Gegenwart. […] Das gefühlvolle und kraftvolle Spiel der Lyra gibt oft die Richtung vor. Fast wie ein Gesang, der aus der Erde entspringt, stimmt sie meist wehmütig die minimalen Klanggeschichten an. Diese werden dann vom zarten, anmutigen und nahezu geheimnisvollen Spiel des Pianos aufgegriffen und fortgeführt. […] Die beiden Musiker lassen ihre Instrumente in einen ergreifenden Dialog treten, voller Weite, Schönheit und dem Gefühl von Unendlichkeit.

Erik Prochnow, Folker