Daniel Janke Winter Trio: Available Light

Canadian pianist Daniel Janke calls the trio responsible for his Available Light the Winter Trio. The leader manages piano duties, accompanied by bassist Basile Racola and drummer Ariel Tessier. The inspiration for the name was Janke's home base, Whitehorse, Yukon, a city of thirty thousand hearty souls at sixty degrees north latitude, in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains. It is a place of expansive available sunlight in the summer and minimal, dusk-like available light in the winter. The cover art, in the manner of the French impressionist painters of the nineteenth century, reflects this special lighting aspect in the CD's title and the music.

Winter looms large in the recording. "Song For Margaret" was inspired by the sight of a young girl viewed through the trees skating on a frozen river. The title tune refers to Northern Canada's limited winter light. "River Ice" was inspired by the sound that river ice makes when walked upon—an otherworldly sound that inspires fear and wonder.

In a set that includes hints of the spiritual with "Blessed Assurance," and the traditional with "Man Of Constant Sorrow," a spontaneous improvisation based loosely on the old folk song, and the familiar, to Dawson City, Yukon residents—the "Cafe Bonton," an allegedly chill place to hang out up there in the north country.

As an overall statement, Available Light is a marvelously cohesive work of art revealing Daniel Janke's strong musical vision—a beautifully expressed exploration of the sound of winter in the starkness of Yukon's dry high desert area, where the sound is a sharp and crystalline experience.