Misha Alperin - Her First Dance

"Her First Night" on the ever-reliable ECM label is a highly enjoyable album from the Ukrainian musician and pianist Misha Alperin. This, his latest album released in 2008 is a beautiful piano-led mixture of instrumentals which effortlessly combine haunting with melancholic, dramatic with melodic, and some jaunty faster pieces complement the variations in style. Some of the more melodic pieces here are not a million miles away from "The Promise" by Vassilis Tsabropoulos', an amazing album which I raved about here, but that would only be a lazy comparison.

Alperin is joined by Arkady Shilkloper on French horn, flugelhorn and on violincello Anja Lechner. The latter I am fast becoming a big fan of through albums such as "Chants, Hymns and Dances" and "Melos" with Vassilis Tsabropoulos and "Ojos Negros" with Dino Saluzzi and various recordings with Rosamunde Quartett with whom she is a member.

I don't know if it's anything with getting older, but lately I find my musical preferences leaning towards to the more slower paced and mellow side of the musical spectrum. Not a bad thing I would say, for sometimes we need to take a step back from the chaos of daily life. Saying that, I am not a pipe and Horlicks man. Yet.

Key tracks for me include the title track "Her First Dance", "Tiflis" and "April In February", to name just three.

The best place to source sound clips is here.

Vassilis Tsabropoulos & Anja Lechner

This is a wonderful piece of music from the Greek composer and pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos and the German celloist Anja Lechner with a track from the excellent album "Chants, Hymns and Dances" (ECM) with the catchy title "Trois Morceaux Apres Hymnes Byzantins".

Curiously on this clip, the audio is accompanied with pictorial images of Istanbul. Always a good thing, as it is one of my favourite cities.

Lately the music of Vassilis Tsabropoulos has become the soundtrack to my daily commuting life. I urge you to investigate the recordings of this very talented musician.

Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita

The work of the Tunisian oud player and composer Anouar Brahem was first brought to my attention a couple of years ago by my good friend Abdel Halim El Hachimi over at Tales From Bradistan. The album recommended to me was "Voyage de Sahar" (2005). A truly beautiful recording and a revelation to me. It's simple but effective arrangements were based around the oud, piano and accordion. To me that album was, and still is one of the most atmospheric and enchanting albums I have ever heard. For me a desert island disc, no doubt. Not far behind that was "Le Pas du Chat Noir" (2001) featuring the same musicians and instrumentation. Exploring Brahem's work further on his previous recordings, I discovered that this artist is not one who sticks to the same formula. Most of his albums will of course feature the oud as lead instrument which lends itself to a middle eastern sound, but that sound with different musicians can be interweaved easily with anything from clarinet, violin, soprano saxophone, double-bass or more traditional middle eastern instruments such as the nay to create a different feel and vibe on each album, but still underpinned with a very distinctive sound, with almost a brooding haunting feel. Don't expect to be able to dance to any of Anouar Brahem's music, but expect to be moved.

This album "The Astounding Eyes of Rita" - like the recordings mentioned above, are on the ECM label. There have been some wonderful releases on this label recently such as Vassilis Tsabropoulos - "The Promise" and Jon Balke & Amina Alaoui - "Siwan". The musicians on this disc work with Brahem for the first time and they are: Klaus Gesing - bass clarinet, Björn Meyer - bass and Khaled Yassine on darbuka and bendir. The album is not as immediate as "Voyage de Sahar" or "Le Pas du Chat Noir", but much more accesaible than earlier albums like "Conte de L'incroyable Amour" or "Barzakh". "...Rita" begins to make sense after two or three plays and it is definitely one of the best new albums that I have encountered in recent months, and there has been a lot of good stuff around.

It's hard to pick highlights on this, but my current favourites are "The Lover Of Beirut", "Al Birwa", "Galilee Mon Amour" and the album's amazing title track, which there is a clip of below.

Eleni Karaindrou - The Weeping Meadow

Eleni Karaindrou is a Greek composer who has scored many films by her countryman and filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos. I recently encountered her work and was quite intrigued by it, as I have, in recent years become very fond of music of with a cinematic slant by artists such as Rodrigo Leao, Yann Tiersen and Michael Nyman.

I haven't seen the film `The Weeping Meadow' - or indeed any film by Angelopoulos, but judging by this soundtrack I can't imagine it would be a barrel of laughs.

This soundtrack from 2004 consists of pretty much one theme and a few variations, with the instrumentation predominantly consisting of a string orchestra, accordion, double bass, harp and piano. The result is that of a mournful nature, but there are a few moments where the sound elevates into something more joyous.

This is very effecting music and and I am already investigating further recordings by this artist.

Here is an excerpt.

Vassilis Tsabropoulos - The Promise

I know this is the second ECM release to be mentioned on this blog in one week, but I just couldn't let this one pass by without a mention. `The Promise' really is one of the most beautiful and captivating albums that I have heard for a while, and has already become one those albums that I know I will treasure and play for the rest of my life. No joke.

If solo piano music is your thing, in particular, that of the more melodic, atmospheric and unpretentious variety. This is for you. Music like this deserves needs respect and needs the right setting.

I can't warrant any real comparisons on this, but if forced I would say Keith Jarrett without the jazz-iness and with more melody.

Vassilis Tsabropoulos is a very talented Greek pianist and this is second solo album on ECM. His collaboration with German cellist Anja Lechner 'Chants, Hymns and Dances' is also well worth investigating.

Here is a clip of `Pearl' from `The Promise'.



And click here for a clip of the title track, as I am unable to post a direct link on this occasion.

Jon Balke & Amina Alaoui - Siwan

On the surface `Sivan' on the ECM label is quite a dark affair, but scratch below the surface and you will find joyous melodies to brighten up your day. OK, I wouldn't go that far. This is a very sobering experience which needs your full attention, and that means listening to it more than once to be able to fully judge. Music should never be that obvious. And some of the best music needs a bit of work on the listeners part, otherwise we'd all be listening to The Kooks or something worse (if that's possible).

Arranged by Norwegian jazz pianist and composer Jon Balke, the sound of the violin - or several of them, dominates proceedings, with trumpet from Jon Hassell, cello, double bass, harpsichord, percussion and topped off with enticing vocals by the Moroccan singer Amina Alaoui. It moves along at a predominately slow pace and like most artist albums nowadays, goes on a tad too long.

Essentially the album is what will be lumped in with "world jazz", taking in influences from the Arab world as well as the Balkans and other European regions.

Here is an audio youtube clip of `Ya Safwati', taken from `Siwan'

Anouar Brahem - Leila Au Pays Du Carrousel

With a simple combination of oud, piano and accordion, this is the mesmerising `Leila Au Pays Du Carrousel' by the very talented Tunisian musician and composer Anouar Brahem taken from the album `Le Pas Du Chat Noir' on ECM.

Anouar Brahem - Vague

This is a clip featuring the music of Anouar Brahem, the Tunisian Oud player and composer, with the track `Vague'. All I will say is that this is a very beautiful piece of music. Enjoy.

Stephan Micus - The Garden Of Mirrors

No long ago I bought a CD by Stephan Micus called "On The Wing", for the simple reason that it looked interesting and that it was on the European Jazz label ECM, a label that specialises in very distinctive and eye-catching artwork. In recent times I have been listening to some of the more left-of-centre ánd "world music" orientated artists on the label especially Dino Saluzzi , Anouar Brahem and Kayhan Kalhor. However on listening to "On The Wing" for the first time I was very disappointed, despite having some very good tracks such as "Gazelle", some tracks rendered the album as a whole almost unlistenable for reasons that would be apparent should you choose to listen to the album in question (The track "Morning Star" being a good example).

The thing about Stephan Micus is that not only does he compose all the tracks on his albums, he also plays every instrument as well, and that could be anything from a 14-string guitar, a sitar to a ney and even his own "voice". You get the picture. German born Micus takes his influences globally. I knew from the moment I became aware of what Stephan Micus was about I had to venture further, and so I did (It took me long enough. His first album was released in 1976!). This led me to "The Garden Of Mirrors" (1997), a very satisfying set indeed. Nine extremely atmospheric pieces with "Gates Of Fire" and "Words Of Truth" being choice tracks which features the likes of steel drums, bowed sinding, tin whistle and a shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). With a back catalogue of 20 or so albums under his belt, I will no doubt be venturing further into the world of this very unique artist.

You can hear clips from this album here.