Reviews of the week

The album Lullaby by Mathias Eick enchants reviewers in the US and Germany

On ‘Lullaby’ Eick’s chosen a quartet format, leading a group of masterful improvisors who are as eager to explore as he is: Kristjan Randalu on piano and Ole Morten Vågan on double bass, with drummer Hans Hulbækmo making his ECM debut. This is such a strong and appealing album from beginning to end, I think it’s going to figure prominently in my listening for some time to come. Whether playing in ballad mode or more upbeat and rhythmic numbers, this quartet truly shines, with the expert touch of Manfred Eicher producing. Hulbækmo was an excellent choice behind the kit. […] Elegant compositions, inspired playing, sensitive ballads and intensive grooves. Lullaby is cozy jazz for all seasons.

Gary Whitehouse, Greenman Review

So duftig und zart, wie diese Stücke zunächst wirken, erzählen sie von tiefem gegenseitigem Verständnis, Gemeinsamkeiten und der Individualität innerhalb des Quartetts. Dabei bilden der sanft wehende, atemreiche Trompetenklang von Eick und die kräftigeren, dunklen Impulse des Kontrabassisten Ole Morten Vågan einen spannungsreichen Rahmen, innerhalb dessen der Pianist Kristjan Randalu und der Schlagzeuger Hans Hulbækmo mit viel Fantasie und Feingefühl agieren. In Eicks nebelverhangenen Melodien schwingt das Feeling der skandinavischen Volksmusik mit, wobei immer wieder ein heller Funke wie ein Sonnenstrahl aus dem weißen Himmel blitzt. Dass er zweimal die Trompete beiseitelegt und lange, folkloristisch anmutende Töne singt, wirkt wie eine Referenz an eine weite, von Bergen und Ebenen geprägte Landschaft. Das Osloer Rainbow Studio bot mit seiner ausgewogenen Akustik die idealen Voraussetzungen für eine solch intime Aufnahme. Die klar definierte Präsenz der Instrumente lässt nachvollziehen, wie harmonisch sich die vier zu einem ebenso unauffällig wie intensiv kommunizierenden Ensemble zusammengefunden haben

Werner Stiefele, Rondo

Anja Lechner’s solo recording of music by J.S. Bach, Abel and Hume impresses reviewers in Italy and Austria

Stavolta ne è protagonista una delle massime violoncelliste contemporanee, Anja Lechner, musicista a proprio agio sia con le partiture più rigorose, sia con l’improvvisazione. Nel suo primo lavoro per violoncello solo pubblicato da Ecm, Lechner cerca e trova il filo della storia che lega vita e opere di Hume a quelle di Carl Friedrich Abel, violista da gamba nato quasi ottant’anni dopo la morte del capitano, scom- parso del 1787, e pressoché contemporaneo di Johann Sebastian Bach, che nelle celebri sei suite per violoncello solo seppe magistralmente incorporare il portato storico della viola da gamba, all’epoca pur sempre d’uso comune. Forse pensando proprio al tocco di Abel, e notando, perdipiù, che il padre di Abel suonava nell’orchestra di corte di Kitten, diretta proprio da Bach. Simmetricamente rispetto al lavoro di Zanobini con la viola d’amore, Anja Lechner ha scelto di suonare il violoncello utilizzando un archetto barocco, avvicinandosi dunque al suono della viola da gamba. E un’altra curiosa simmetria sta nel repertorio di Hume scelto da Lechner: The First Part of Ayres, i medesimi studi sugli ‘stati d’animo’, messi a stampa nel 1605, indagati nel disco NovAntiqua. Tra le meraviglie di Hume messe in evidenza dal tocco magistrale di Lechner, Harke Harke: per la prima volta il Capitano prescriveva di eseguire certe parti percussive utilizzando la parte in legno dell’archetto, e non i crini: vera avanguardia, allora, come la probabile altra invenzione di Hume, il pizzicato sulle corde della viola da gamba. Quando si alza la polvere della storia, la musica antica scintilla.

 Guido Festinese, Il Manifesto

Auf ‘Bach/Abel/Hume’ verbindet Anja Lechner Cello-Suiten von J.S. Bach mit Stücken von Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) und Tobias Hume (1569-1645). Sie sind wie geschaffen für Lechners sinnliches, poetisches und kantables Spiel.

Miriam Damev, Falter

The album Preludes and Songs by Francois Couturier and Dominique Pifarély is acclaimed by media in the US and France

This seemed to be the perfect album to listen to on a Sunday morning: peaceful, classical, warm and beautiful.  The delicious sounds of just violin and piano fill the house with serenity.  This duo is spectacular, with a bit of Avant-garde thrown into the musical soup like cayenne pepper. […] .  Jazz is what puts inspired freedom into their music. With all the classical roots and technical cleverness, it is the essence of improvisation that colors this music with rainbow brilliance. On the familiar ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’ Pifarély begins with his violin solo.  Midway through, the piano of Couturier enters, then spirits away with the flutter of mid-range piano keys sounding like bird wings, shivering to be free. When Pifarély re-enters, the bird takes flight. […] These two incredibly talented musicians both add their own composing talents to the mix. But when they ‘cover’ tunes like ‘I Loves You Porgy,’ you hear how in touch they are with jazz and the universal freedom it brings to music.

Dee Dee McNeil, Making A Scene

A plus près d’un chant lointain. Une œuvre qui fera date! […] Cette musique pour vocation de nous porter aux confins de toute culture commune, de viser la limite la plus éloignée et sans doute la plus difficile à atteindre, celle sépare le monde connu, où langage règne en maître, d’une contrée plus austere et rare, faite d’essences subtiles, insaisissables et, pour tout dire, indicibles. Nous deux musiciens […] nous livrent ici une œuvre majeure. […] Dominique Pifarély a pu récemment livrer le fond de sa pensée à propos de cet album. […] Ils ont dépassé depiuis longtemps  la question technique et savent que la virtuosité et la maîtrise instrumentals font partie des réquisits qu’il faut s’empresser d’oublier. […]Quant à Francois Couturier […] Il nous restitue l’errance des premiers jours.

Philippe Hansebout, Culture Tops

An Italian reaction to the album Relations by Thomas Strønen

Un disco d’altri tempi, che riporta indietro le lancette dei nostri orologi di mezzo secolo, cioè agli anni Settanta, ma senza alcun senso di nostalgia né il minimo anacronismo. È lo spirito esplorativo di quell’epoca che rivive nei trentasei minuti di ‘Relations’, un titolo quanto mai efficace per raccontare la genesi e lo sviluppo di un progetto astratto e articolato, sulla falsariga della miglior tradizione dell’etichetta tedesca. (…) I dialoghi con i sax tenore e soprano di Potter fanno tornare in mente gli ‘spazi interstellari’ di John Coltrane e Rashied Ali, mentre gli interventi pianistici di Taborn e Rossy (che per l’occasione lascia la batteria per il vibrafono) ci spingono verso i territori e le dinamiche della libera improvvisazione.

Ivo Franchi, Musica Jazz

Acclaim from a UK paper for the album Imaginary Cycle by Florian Weber

This is music for piano, brass ensemble and flute written by the German composer and pianist Florian Weber: an unusual line-up that makes for a bold and exciting sonic journey. Weber on piano is joined by a group including four euphonium players, a trombone quartet as well as flautist Anna-Lena Schnabel and Michel Godard on the little used tuba ‘serpent’ instrument. Together they perform a work that blurs the line between where improvisation ends and composition begins. The cycle is spread over four main sections: Opening, Word, Sacrifice and Blessing, all bearing ritualistic connotations. The composer deliberately reflects on the liturgical mass as a means of organisation and community, here minimalist in dogma. In Prologue the composition is focused at the start of the journey on intense, flowing piano refrains from Weber. Chopin-inspired, lyrical and pictorial in intent, it gives way to the introduction of brooding dark brass, held chords that contrast with the optimism of the melodic piano lines, given room to explore different spaces and spectrums above. But the function of the brass is not limited to accompaniment: individual sections detach and regroup throughout, answering the piano’s impulses in a mass-like call and response. […] Epilogue closes the album with a two-minute summary of the journey, the new lands reached and spiritual awakenings realised. The final blend of piano, brass and flute are celebrated in harmonic unison, with a vigour matched by a final flourish of melody on the piano underscored by sustained brass chords. A work of outstanding beauty with no compromise.

Simon Duff, Morning Star

The album Za Górami by Alice Zawadzki, Fred Thomas and Misha Mullov-Abbado is reviewed in an Italian magazine

È un esordio magico e che colpisce cuore, sensi e cervello quello firmato da Alice Zawadzki, Fred Thomas e Misha Mullov-Abbado, tutti e tre londinesi (lei però ha origini polacche e Misha vanta radici russe e italiane) e tutti e tre in grado di rapportarsi con il linguaggio dei suoni in assoluta libertà, senza preoccuparsi di confini e di steccati e lavorando su canovacci la cui base affonda nel patrimonio popolare di Paesi diversi. (…) È un esordio magico e che colpisce cuore, sensi e cervello quello firmato da Alice Zawadzki, Fred Thomas e Misha Mullov-Abbado, tutti e tre londinesi (lei però ha origini polacche e Misha vanta radici russe e italiane) e tutti e tre in grado di rapportarsi con il linguaggio dei suoni in assoluta libertà, senza preoccuparsi di confini e di steccati e lavorando su canovacci la cui base affonda nel patrimonio popolare di Paesi diversi.

Ivo Franchi, Musica Jazz

A US reaction to the album Seeing by the Tord Gustavsen Trio

Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen addresses various hymns and church music with rare elegance and unhurried grace on ‘Seeing’ (ECM), his sublime tenth outing as a leader. Backed by his highly empathetic rhythm tandem of longtime collaborator Jarle Vespestad on drums and Steinar Raknes on bass, Gustavsen creates peaceful, meditative soundscapes like his gospel-infused  ‘The Old Church’ and his interpretations of the J.S. Bach chorales ‘Auf meinen lieben Gott’ (‘In God, My Faithful God’) and ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ (‘Christ  Lay in Bonds  of Death’). Other Gustavsen originals like ‘Extended Circle’ and ‘Seattle Song’, each imbued with  a sparse melancholy  vibe and zen-like restraint, are breathtakingly beautiful. And the trio’s handling of the 19^th century English chorale ‘nearer My God, to Thee’ is an exquisite triumph.

Bill Milkowski, The Absolute Sound