Is it jazz? Is it folk? Is it ambient? It’s ECM! Three different points on the triangle of music.
Trumpeter Michael Mantler brings together some far sighted players from a big band conducted by Christoph Cech and the Vienna String Quartet. The latter includes, but is not limited to Harry Sokal/ts-ss, Wolfgang Puschnig/as-fl, Bjarne Roupe’:g and David Helbock and the band does some fragrant and free form charts such as “Update One” and “Update Eight.” The music and charts on these seven “Updates” have a feel like the old ECM days, with some searching solos by Mantler and Sokal, while the three parts of “ Update Twelve” (confused yet?) have a more lyrical and modern classical feel. More for the grey matter than the soles of your feet.
Robin Williamson has been on the UK folk scene since the initial “invasion” with Fairport Convention and Pentangle. Here, he joins up with Mat Maneri/viola and Ches Smith/vib-dr-perc while he himself sings, plays the guitar, harp, fiddle and whistles on a wide range of fold sounds. A piece such as “Evening Walk” has the strings forming a raga of sorts while “These Hands of Mine” could have been something delivered by the Hot Club of France with its buoyant swinging violin. Just to keep you on your toes, Williamson goes 60s Beat Poet with Smith’s drums on “Night Comes Quick In LA,” so you’re getting a wide swath of personal material here, delivered with the well worn vocal chords of a man who’s lived through every fad and genre, and lives to sing about it.
Last, but not least, you have Lumen Drones, who plays the fiddle in a trio with Per Steinar Lie/g and Orjan Haaland/dr. For the most part, the music comes across as if Brian Eno took up the stringed instrument, as pieces such as “Dark Sea” and “Ira Furore” serve as ambience as the pair of strings and drums weave, wobble and veer in various moods and directions. A couple of times things get a bit feisty between percussion and bow, but for the most part there is a pastoral sense to the atmosphere, creating an acoustic painting on your walls.
ECM Records
www.ecmrecords.com