Levity

 Hypnote Records presents the new album of Albert Vila, release date January 13, 2023.

From the beginning of his career, Albert Vila established himself as a unique musician on the European scene, with his love of strong melodies and well-crafted compositions. For his new album ‘Levity’, a first outing on solo guitar, Albert Vila offers a surprising and eclectic repertoire.

The jazz guitarist takes you from Antonio Carlos Jobim and American Jazz Standards to gems from Nick Drake, The Beatles and Bob Marley. While the repertoire is diverse, the respect for the artists and the coherence of each of the eight tracks develop organically over the course of the album. The global phenomenon of the pandemic catalysed this new album.

 

 

The album was conceived during the heaviest time of the pandemic, and in some way, creating these arrangements lifted Albert up, keeping him inspired through uncertainty and helping him to navigate its darkest moments.

Albert constantly treads new artistic paths and searches for an intimate connection between modern and classical musical aesthetics, the specific and the universal, while emphasising his narrative, evocative expression with strength and humility. As a listener you will certainly redis- cover songs you already know in a version that evokes purity and conceptual simplicity. Close your eyes and enjoy.

Root 7

 Pioneer of the New York No Wave with the bands Mars and Don King, Mark Cunningham has been part of the Barcelona music underground for almost 30 years, performing solo, with his own groups Raeo, Convolution, Aleatory Grammar and Bèstia Ferida, as a member of Pascal Comelade´s Bel Canto Orchestra and Superelvis, and in countless local and international collaborations. Blood Quartet was formed in early 2015 in Barcelona from a fortuitous collaboration between Cunningham and Catalan underground rock trio Murnau B An outstanding musical treat that starts from the instrumental base of the modern jazz quartet and takes it to the territory of experimentation and electronics. Blood Quartet sound more luminous and rhythmic than ever, diving into uncharted terrain. This results in an exceptional range of genres that play with the form between the classic and the Artist: BLOOD QUARTET Title: ROOT 7 Labels: Cardinal Fuzz (Europe), Feeding Tube Records (USA), Release Date: 20th Jan 2023 contemporary, and that extend the creative spectrum of the band towards new styles, such as krautrock and North African music. The result of this process has given rise to nine themes, each one baptized with the title of a literary work by some reference writers of the members of the quartet, in order to add more roots of meaning, more shadows of influence. Root 7 is a 500 pressing on heavy black vinyl and presented in a 350gsm Matt Laminated Outer Sleeve. Released via Cardinal Fuzz, Feeding Tube Records and Foehn Records

Thunder

Stephan Micus is a unique musician and composer. He collects and studies instruments from all around the world and creates his own musical journeys with them. This is his 25th solo album for ECM and its sound is dominated by the four-metre long Tibetan dung chen trumpet, an instrument he has recently learned and is using for the first time. It was the thunderous sound of this instrument that led to the album’s name and its nine tracks celebrating deities around the world. “I dedicate this music to the big family of thundergods around the world, humbly hoping that - when they hear it - their destructive powers will be somehow pacified,” he says. It features instruments - all played by Stephan Micus - from Tibet, India, Burma, Borneo, Siberia, Japan, South America, Gambia, Namibia, Sweden and Bavaria.The album will be released to coincide with Stephan’s 70th birthday January 19.

Drifting

After Mette Henriette’s critically acclaimed, self-titled first recording comes Drifting – an album pervaded by trio conversations of idiosyncratic and original expression. With Johan Lindvall returning on piano, new addition Judith Hamann on cello and herself on saxophone, Mette’s chamber musical elaborations prove of a concentrated and exploratory quality, marked by subtle yet intense interaction. Motifs and recurring patterns crystallize and reveal a concise, intricate narrative. The saxophonist-composer explains how “this album is in movement. It’s on its way somewhere and has its own pace – its creative agency is fundamentally different from what I’ve done previously.” Recorded in Oslo, completed in Studios La Buissonne and produced by Manfred Eicher, Drifting presents the trio’s deep investigations into hushed textures and rich tones with precision and clarity.

A Short Diary

Sebastian Rochford: drums, composition; Kit Downes: piano

ECM 2749                  CD 6024 4534944 9            Release: 20 January 2023

This “short diary (of loss)”, as drummer Sebastian Rochford calls it, is offered as “a sonic memory, created with love, out of need for comfort.” It is dedicated to Rochford’s father, Aberdeen poet Gerard Rochford, 1932-2019, and to his family. Seb, one of ten siblings, wrote most of the music shortly after Gerard’s death and delivers it here, in performances of deep feeling and hymn-like clarity, together with pianist Kit Downes. The final wistful piece, “Even Now I Think Of Her” was composed by Gerard Rochford. Sebastian explains:  “It’s a tune my dad had sung into his phone and sent me. I forwarded this to Kit. He listened, and then we started.”

Rochford recalls how, after his father passed away, “music just seemed to come to me, sing inside me every day, sometimes even as I woke. Though initially I felt conflict in writing and hadn't wanted to, in it's coming, it realised in me a sense of comfort and also a way to sense physically what I was feeling.  So in a musical way, it became my diary of this time.” As far as diaries go, this may be a quietly reflective one; however, it is also imbued with striking melodic themes and poignant chord progressions, replete with many nuances and different shades of tone and timbre spread across a simple grand piano and the bare necessities of a drum-kit.

The album was recorded at Rochford’s childhood home in Scotland – its intimate acoustics captured comprehensively and with crystalline transparency. “As my parents always loved music being played at home and we would not be able to keep the house, I thought to record the music there, also as a sonic memory of where I grew up, played on my grandfather's piano, gifted to us by my father's brother, a tribute to the wonderful, kind hearted man I called my dad.”

As the drummer wrote the music, sitting at his father’s piano, he took notes in a manuscript book, making sure to record, in words, the details of atmosphere and ambiance that can’t be expressed through scores. “All the music has sheet music and as the tone is an important part of the feeling, Kit and I spoke about achieving certain dynamics, as I felt if the piano went past certain dynamics, the feeling was lost for me. The writing of the music was also a comfort for me at this time, so I wanted the music we recorded to reflect that.”

For the opening, hymnal “This Tune your ears will never hear” in his manuscript book Seb jotted down: “Like a child calling out alone into an empty void”. Regarding “Night of Quiet”, performed on piano solo, Rochford points out the setting: “It was late. I could hear people speaking in the other room. I played the minimum, just to know the notes, very quietly.” And for “Love You Grampa”, where common chords and hymnal tendencies return to be further investigated, the drummer-composer again emphasises the importance of family bonds. These thoughts transcend the music, and the music returns the favour.

Rochford approached Manfred Eicher – with whom he had previously worked playing drums on Andy Sheppard’s albums Trio Libero (2012), Surrounded By Sea (2015) and Romaria (2018) – and asked if he’d be open to producing A Short Diary. “I feel Manfred understands how to concentrate and intensify what the artists he has chosen to work with are aiming to achieve, allowing them to bloom. Due to the circumstances of how this album came together and my previous experience of him, I felt he would understand and be sensitive to this music, as this was vital to me.”

A meticulous production process in collaboration with Eicher, who then mixed the album in Munich, followed: “Listening to Manfred’s mixes was like he was showing me what I had made and hearing the music for the first time. To be honest, I don't even know how he made the music sound the way it does, but I felt he had intensified and brought into focus everything about it.”

 

Space Alley

 Plastic Crimewave Syndicate has finally returned with a wide-ranging/raging new album — recorded two years ago in an expansive, benevolent alleyway in the midst of a dark, diseased, claustrophobic time of global chaos. The new PCWS album, entitled "Space Alley," boldly travels into the relatively unexplored malevolent terrain of free doom, space/noise punk, and darkly dubbed-out library/soundtrack grooves (call it 70's crooked-cop show/ freak-funk, if you must). This is all capped off with a sidelong, (beat of the) earthharvesting modal exploration of synthed-out kraut-throb. With new bassist Rob Rodak (Dead Feathers) aboard, and guests like sax-skronk legend Taralie Peterson (Spires That in the Sunset Rise), flautist Sara Gossett (Spiral Galaxy), and synthlord Will MacLean (Protovulcan), new influences have seeped into PCWS's dystopian vision. The Syndicate have opened for revered deities like Nik Turner, Loop, Simply Saucer, Chrome, and Josefus; but now a more diverse and groovy array of past underground sounds like Skin Alley, Artist: PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE SYNDICATE Title: SPACE ALLEY Labels: Cardinal Fuzz (Europe), LION Records (USA), Release Date: 20th Jan 2023 Sound of Imker, Here and Now, Mann/Sharrock, Black Sun Ensemble, Parson Sound, and Schizo have influenced PCWS's journey. Recorded by Eric Block (Rhys Chatham, Sick Gazelle) of Rec Rooms studios, and mastered by Monster Magnet/Desert Sessions guitar god JP McBain, the mind-fry level is set to 11 ½ on Space Alley!

Alive At The Village Vanguard

Due out January 9, 2023 on Palmetto Records, Alive at the Village Vanguard features two of jazz’s most revered artists in captivating form at the legendary NYC club 

Pianist/composer Fred Hersch and vocalist/bassist/songwriter esperanza spalding (stylized in all lower case) can both be counted among the most acclaimed and inventive artists in modern jazz. The Village Vanguard is the music’s most revered venue, having played host to countless legendary musicians and beloved live recordings. The duo and the club converge for a magical performance on Alive at the Village Vanguard, a rare opportunity for listeners to enjoy the singular and thrilling collaboration between two marquee jazz artists at the top of their game. Due out January 9, 2023 via Palmetto Records, Alive at the Village Vanguard showcases the astonishing chemistry shared by these two master musicians, who bring out distinctive aspects in each other’s playing. Hersch and spalding have convened for only a handful of New York City performances since their first meeting in 2013 during the pianist’s annual duo series at the Jazz Standard. In that limited time the pair has developed a wholly personal approach, not only in the annals of piano-voice duets but in their own already highly individual practices. Taking the stage with no set arrangements and only a vague sense of the repertoire they’ll explore, the dauntless pair delights in playing without a safety net. “This recording sounds like you’re in the best seat in the Vanguard for a very live experience,” says Hersch. “You can really feel the vitality of the room, of the audience, and of our interplay. We decided on the word Alive for the album title as you can really feel the intimacy and energy of the performances.” Alive at the Village Vanguard marks Hersch’s sixth recording from the storied club, where he’s been invited to headline three weeks annually for many years. The album also vividly spotlights Hersch’s stunning sensitivity and engagement as a duo partner; in recent years he’s worked in a similar setting with such incredible musicians as guitarists Julian Lage and Bill Frisell, clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen, saxophonist Miguel Zenón, and trumpet maestro Enrico Rava. Hersch and spalding will celebrate the album’s release with a return to the Village Vanguard for a weeklong engagement beginning on January 10. That will be followed by a three-week U.S. tour [see above]. “Playing with Fred feels like we’re in a sandbox,” spalding says. “He takes his devotion to the music as serious as life and death, but once we start playing, it’s just fun. I like to live on the edge in my music, but I find myself trying things that I usually wouldn’t when I play with him, finding new spaces to explore in the realm of improvised lyrics.” Always a determined original in her own projects, spalding rarely sings standards, and her approach here is unique to her partnership with Hersch. She’s revealed on this outing as not just a phenomenal scat singer but a charming and imaginative improvisational storyteller. The Gershwins’ “But Not For Me” becomes a witty, poetic extemporization on the lyric itself, examining the changes in language represented by the original’s sometimes archaic terminology. Neal Hefti and Bobby Troup’s chauvinistic ditty “Girl Talk” comes under barbed scrutiny from not only a feminist but also an eco-conscious perspective. “I don’t think anybody’s heard esperanza sing like this,” Hersch says. “She’s a fearless vocalist, and is one of the biggest talents I know. She’s got a huge reach in her intellectual knowledge and is a big thinker in both her projects and in her outlook.” Hersch’s preternatural reflexes, profound emotional expressiveness and unparalleled gift for interpreting and reimagining repertoire with each new performance are on mesmerizing display throughout the album. His “Dream of Monk” has been a staple of the duo’s sets since the beginning. With lyrics penned by the pianist himself, the tune is a dedication to one of the pianist’s most indelible influences, whose own “Evidence” shows why Hersch is such a revered interpreter of the Monk canon. “Little Suede Shoes” transforms another bop-era classic, spinning a playful update on the Charlie Parker calypso. “Some Other Time” is a Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne song, less well known than the Leonard Bernstein classic of the same name but a favorite of Hersch, who weaves an elegant and vivid tapestry during his mesmerizing solo. Egberto Gismonti’s “Loro” is launched by spalding’s unconventional scatting, which she eventually uses to engage in a nimble dance with Hersch’s propulsive piano. The album closes with Hersch’s best-known composition, “A Wish (Valentine),” with magnificent lyrics by Norma Winstone. Though it’s hard to believe given the buoyant spirits and playful interaction of the performances, both spalding and Hersch were working through pain on the October 2018 weekend that this music was recorded. Although the stint ended on a celebratory note with the occasion of Hersch’s 63rd birthday, he was also scheduled to enter the hospital the very next day for hip replacement surgery. “I was in a lot of pain and walking with a crutch,” he recalls. “Just getting down the famous stairs to the Vanguard was an ordeal, but once the music started the pain disappeared completely.” spalding, meanwhile, was struggling with family issues while juggling an intense schedule that included writing an opera with the master composer Wayne Shorter and beginning a teaching position at Harvard University. “I was going through a very difficult time in my life,” she admits. “I was miserable every day when I got to the Vanguard, so I had to decide to plug into the capacity for this music to heal. I wanted to emanate something positive even though I was feeling so horrible. Neither of us were feeling well in our lives outside of the music, so the stage of the Vanguard became an alchemizing place for both of us, and I think you can feel that in the music.” Fred Hersch A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is an influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades. A fifteen-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has long set the standard for expressive interpretation and inventive creativity. A revered improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist, Hersch has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair, “an elegant force of musical invention” by The L.A. Times, and “a living legend” by The New Yorker. For decades Hersch has been firmly entrenched as one of the most acclaimed and captivating pianists in modern jazz, whether through his exquisite solo performances, as the leader of one of jazz’s eradefining trios, or in eloquent dialogue with his deeply attuned duo partners. His brilliant 2017 memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly, was named one of 2017’s Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and The New York Times. esperanza spalding Five-time Grammy Award-winning visionary esperanza spalding aims to ignite and portray various hues of vital human energies through composition, singing, bass playing and live performance. A lover of all music, especially improvisation-based musics emerging from black American culture, spalding’s musical aesthetic is prismatic. With projects like Radio Music Society, Chamber Music Society, Emily’s D+ Evolution and 12 Little Spells, she has inventively combined and reimagined influences from jazz, funk, rock, musical theater and beyond. She has taught at Berklee College of Music and Harvard University, founded the Songwrights Apothecary Lab, and wrote the opera ...(Iphigenia) in collaboration with Wayne Shorter. 

Pasado en Claro

Anders Jormin: double bass; Lena Willemark: vocals, violin, viola; Karin Nakagawa: 25-string koto; Jon Fält: drums, percussion

ECM 2761      06024 4875945 (0)      Release: 20. Januar 2023

 The creative partnership of bassist Anders Jormin and singer/violinist/violist Lena Willemark has brought forth special music over the last two decades.  Near the beginning of their association, first given exposure in 2004 with the album In Winds, In Light,  Jormin observed, “How Lena Willemark manages to preserve her local musical dialect and at the same time be so expressive, so personal, receptive and contemporary is a tremendous inspiration not only for me.”  Willemark, raised in the traditional music milieu of Sweden’s Älvdalen region had already demonstrated a capacity to go beyond the frontiers of ‘folk’ in her ECM recordings with Ale Möller, including Nordan and Agram. The work with Anders Jormin became a logical next step.

After a productive collaboration on Jormin’s oratorio Between Always and Never, Anders and Lena introduced a new project, joined by Japanese koto player Karin Nakagawa on the 2015 ECM album Trees of Light. US magazine Stereophile praised its “music of bracing originality, strength, grace, darkness, light, gravitas, wit, and utter attentiveness to each other’s silences and sounds”.

 Now, with the addition of drummer Jon Fält, Anders’s long time comrade in the Bobo Stenson Trio, the group has expanded its improvisational range. Many creative ideas are explored on Pasado en claro, emerging from its juxtaposition of sung poetry and musical interaction.  Jormin casts his net wide, bringing together texts from ancient Chinese and Japanese sources with contemporary Scandinavian poetry, also setting words by Mexican writer Octavio Paz and by Petrarch, lyric poet of Renaissance Italy. 

 

The resourceful Willemark sings this cross section of world verse and adds her own songs to the programme.  For all its broad scope, however, the music retains its own group logic through its combining of voice, fiddle, koto, bass and percussion.  The sparse, archaic sounds of the koto, in particular, seem to open up new spaces in which collective creativity can flower. As Anders Jormin explains it: “When each musician’s unique musical dialect, in curiosity and with open listening ears, blends and communicates, something stronger than our four individual voices may awake. Something happens that in advance is not decided or controlled.” The outcome: “carefully crystallized and heartfelt music”.

*

Anders Jormin, born in Jönköping, Sweden, has recorded prolifically for ECM since the early 1990s. In addition to his albums as a leader for the label – Xieyi, In winds, in light, Ad Lucem, Trees of Light – he has appeared on albums with the Bobo Stenson Trio, including Reflections, War Orphans, Serenity, Cantando, Goodbye, Indicum and Contra la Indecisión (a new Stenson Trio album, Sphere, is in preparation).  Jormin, furthermore, can be heard on albums with Charles Lloyd, Tomasz Stanko, Don Cherry, Sinekka Langeland, Jon Balke, Marilyn Mazur, and Ferenc Snétberger.  Through all these endeavours,his improvisational imagination and profound feeling for melody are in evidence.  

 

Lena Willemark, born in the Swedish village of Evertsberg,  has steadily been expanding her range over the years, from folk through jazz to freer improvising – always keeping a focus on the concept of music as a storyteller’s art.  The poems and song lyrics she gives voice to here share a vividness of imagery. As for instance when Lena’s own “The Woman of the Long Ice”  precedes Tomas Tranströmer’s “Kingdom of Coldness”, the latter with its snapshots of “jingling tambourines of ice” and “high tension lines/taut in cold’s brittle kingdom/north of all music.” 

 

 Karin Nakagawa, born in Tokyo, began playing piano at 3, and took up the highly specialized 25-string koto at 12. Two years later she began giving concerts of her own compositions.  Today she is recognized for her improvisational versatility  and her ability to integrate the essence of her sound, with its roots in ancient Japanese tradition, in the most diverse contemporary contexts.

 

Jon Fält, born in Gävle, Sweden, first gained international attention when he joined Bobo Stenson and Anders Jormin in time for the album Cantando (2007) taking over a role previously addressed by two of jazz’s finest  drummers – Jon Christensen and Paul Motian.  Fält impressed  immediately with his own sinuous approach to rhythm and the multiple ways in which he can provide running percussive commentary on the musical action.

 

Pasado en claro was recorded in Studio Epidemin in Gothenburg in December 2021.

 

The quartet of Anders Jormin, Lena Willemark, Karin Nakagawa and Jon Fält plays concerts in Sweden, Denmark and Norway in February 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Candle And The Flame