Is jazz America’s folk music? Is folk music the world’s jazz? The lines blur on these recent ECM releases
Bringing together various instruments that he’s collected around the world, Stephan Micus mixes Burmese temple bells, the bass zither, frame drum, dung chen trumpet, and a wide assortment of things that go bump or zing in the night. With continued ecumenicism, each song on this album is dedicated to a local deity of a country, making the album a kind of Silk Road of sounds. For instance, “A Song for Thor” includes the deeply agonizing horn along with mystical crystals and percussion, while “A Song for “Vrajrapani” brings in a crying flute to a march-like trudge. Some deep liturgical chanting teams with the zither on “A Song for Shango” with a mix of Byzantium and Asian evoked for “A Song of Ihskur”. Sounds leading to and through the Jade Gate.
Bassist Anders Jormin melds Sandinavian poetry with Japanese and Chinese texts along with prose by Renaissance poet Petrarch interpreted by vocalist Lena Willemark/vi-va, Karin Nakagawa/koto and Jon Falt/dr-perc. There is a meditative harp feel from the koto on “Blue Lamp” and a gentle cadence to “Pasado en Claro”. There’s swirling bows and strums on the kaleidoscopic “The Woman of the Long Ice” that Willmark is able to veer through, while she sounds enchanting and medieval on the penetrating “Kingdom of “Coldness”. Jormin guides patiently through “Angels” and bows through the earthy “Mist of the River”. Time travel through words and song.