While there have been many collaborations in the past between jazz and poetry, it’s usually associated with beatniks and smoky nightclubs or soulful street preaching. Soft touched pianist Ketil Bjornstad goes in a completely different direction, bringing in soft toned vocalist Anneli Drecker to interpret the inteimate poems of Lars Saabye Christensen in pastel settings. Almost all of the poems are references to hotels in various cites, so you get an introspective “Palace, Copenhagen,” a shadowy “Palazzo Londra, Venice,” a spacious and glowing “L’Hotel, Paris” and a bluesy “Asotr Crowne, New Orleans.” Drecker is able to range from a soft nasal with tender vibrato during “Mayflower, New York” to an almost dramatic “The Grand, Krakwo” as Bjornstad goes from dramatic vaudeville to lullabye. The lyrics at times reflect the environs, with the voice quietly strolling down the backstreets of your mind.
ECM Records