Pianist Tigran Hamasyan likes to create a contemplative mood. Last year he combined piano with liturgical choral music to a fascinating effect. This time around he brings in Jan Bang for electronic samples as well as the trumpet of Arve Henriksen and Eivind Aarset’s guitar to for layers of shades and colors for two compact discs worth of musings.
There are a surfeit of thick textures provided by the guitar and samplings, with only Henriksen’s gasping horn to pierce the light through the fog as on “Tsirani Tsar” or “Garun A” where the trumpet walks through the marsh guided by Hamsyan’s rich piano flow. Mixings where it’s difficult to separate the horn from the electronics are felt on “Angel of Girona/Qeler Tsoler” while the instruments feel like a chamber orchestra on the flowing “Hoy, Nazan.”
There are a collection of ten “Traces” which all emit a liturgical atmosphere, with the electronics supplying the incense while Hamasyan and Henriksen deliver the recitation and responses. The moods are Byzantine with the music sounding like light emitted through a stained glass window of a saint.
ECM Records