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Ketil Bjornstad: Before the Light
by Glenn Astarita
Pianist/composer Ketil Bjornstad is primarily known for his new age, chamber jazz type outings on the ECM record label. This superbly recorded production is framed upon an imaginary soundtrack – composed for a film story, concerning love and so forth, as described within the liners. Bjornstad composed all these works and performs with guitarist Eivind Aarset, violaist Nora Taksdal and synth ace Kjetil Bjerkestrand.
And as those familiar with Bjornstad’s music would surmise, many of these pieces ...
read moreKiedaisch - Svoboda - Hahn: Water Mirror
by Glenn Astarita
This Germany-based trio, delves into and ultimately stylizes a form of music that perhaps parallels the delicacies, and transmutations of water on Water Mirror. Here, the band melds lucid dreamscapes with a continuous underlying flow, thanks to vibraphonist Michael Kiedaisch’s softly stated melodies and oscillating rhythms, while saxophonist Eberhard Hahn and trombonist Mike Svoboda render soothing lyricism amid complex propositions and cunning modern jazz style dialogue. However, the musicians do utilize various ethnocentric percussion instruments to augment many of these ...
read moreAZOPA (Achim Tang - Zoltan Lantos - Patrice Heral): Makahia
by Glenn Astarita
The trio known as “AZOPA” (derived from the musicians’ first names), melds Eastern European provincial themes with East Indian percussion, modern jazz style interplay, world beat grooves and ethereal dialogue. With the opener, “Call The Morning” one of the musicians perpetuates gravely lower register and somewhat indecipherable spoken word colloquy, which could very well signify the output from drummer/percussionist and EFX maestro Patrice Heral’s manipulations of – live electronics. However, violinist Zoltan Lantos renders swirling and altogether resounding choruses atop ...
read moreGyorgy Szabados: Time Flies
by Glenn Astarita
According to the companion press release, pianist/composer Gyorgy Szabados is the “godfather of the Hungarian modern jazz scene”. Here, the artist embarks on a solo flight consisting of Euro-Classical style themes melded with free jazz dialogue. Basically, Szabados employs swirling clusters and lush embellishments in concert with dazzling speed and wonderfully coordinated yet altogether complex left-hand, right-hand techniques.
The pianist implements an endearing ostinato on the piece titled, “My Favourite Dance” as he raises the intensity level via hypnotic passages ...
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