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Content by tag "Ketil Bjornstad"
Francois Couturier / Tarkovsky Quartet: Nuit Blanche
Following their sublime duo outing, Moderato Cantabile (ECM, 2014), cellist Anja Lechner and François Couturier reunite in the pianist's quartet responsible for two-thirds of a recorded trilogy for ECM Records, all devoted to Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, whose name would ultimately become synonymous with the group: Tarkovsky Quartet.
Bookending Couturier's second album of the ...
Ketil Bjornstad: A Passion for John Donne
Il poeta inglese del Cinquecento John Donne è una costante fonte di ispirazione per Ketil Bjørnstad, che già aveva fatto riferimento a lui in altri lavori. Stavolta, però, gli dedica l'intero progetto del CD, con una scelta stilistica di frontiera che permette al pianista norvegese di affiancare le proprie musiche alle liriche di Donne e di ...
read moreManu Katche: Touchstone for Manu
With only four records released as a leader on ECM, it may seem a little early to release a “best of" disc for drummer Manu Katché. But having since moved on to fellow German label ACT for Live in Concert, while Touchstone for Manu is only being released in North America in the summer of 2015, ...
read moreSteve Tibbetts: “Northern Song” and the Sounds of Silence
It's a chilly, overcast afternoon in jny: Oslo, Norway in late October 1981. This close to the Arctic Circle, the days are already rapidly shortening with winter's approach, the sun beginning to disappear over the horizon by mid-afternoon. In a darkened studio, guitarist Steve Tibbetts, percussionist Marc Anderson, producer and ECM Records head Manfred Eicher, along ...
read moreSinikka Langeland: The half-finished heaven
She may have debuted on ECM (and, consequently, far beyond the borders of her native Norway) with 2007's Starflowers, but Sinikka Langeland has, in fact, been around for more than two decades, with her first album, Langt Innpå Skoga, released on Norway's Grappa label in 1994. Composer, singer and master of the kantele--an antiquated Scandinavian dulcimer/zither ...
read moreMasqualero: Masqualero
Masqualero
Masqualero
Odin
1983
Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, there are still those who think that Norwegian musicians can't play “real jazz" (whatever that is), and that what they do play is something consistently (and erroneously) categorized as “Nordic Cool." Submitted for your approval is today's Rediscovery: the self-titled debut from Masqualero, ...
Anja Lechner / François Couturier: Moderato cantabile
ECM Records has long divided its discography in two: the regular series, representing music of a more improvisational bent; and its New Series, featuring largely classical music ranging from the contemporary to the archaic, but more truly defined in its through-composed nature. Still, the line between the two has, however, often been a porous one, where ...
read moreKetil Bjornstad: Ketil Bjornstad: Sunrise (A cantata on texts by Edvard Munch)
For a country with such a small population, Norway has much to be proud of when it comes to the arts...and not just music, though it remains a country whose support has certainly resulted in a disproportionate number of creative musicians across the broadest musical spectrum. Looking at the violin and its variants alone, there is ...
read moreJazzkaar 2014
Jazzkaar 2014
Tallinn, Estonia
April 16-28, 2014
Any opportunity to return to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia in Eastern Europe, is one worth grabbing. Beyond the somewhat surreal feeling of being in a country that, just 23 years ago, was a completely different place, Tallinn is, quite simply, one of the most ...
Hayden Powell: Roots and Stems
For those who think the Norwegian jazz scene is all about electronics, sampling and processing (not that there's anything wrong with that), one look at Hayden Powell, born in England but relocated to Norway as a young child, and any such accusations and generalizations are quickly put to rest. A trumpeter on the ascendance with Magic ...
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