A lulling opening, Norwegian percussionist Håkon Stene’s vibes darkening stealthily with added cello tonality from Tanja Orning creeping in this minimalist glacially-shifting chamber set of nine tracks is an engrossing listen despite appearances. Unusual cimbalom flavours on the long second composition, Gavin Bryars’ shimmeringly beautiful ‘Hi Tremolo’, a piece that dates back to the early part of the 1980s written for vibes, marimba, and two pianos, are just one striking aspect. It’s one of Lush Laments’ most entrancing sections, an album that also includes a piece of Christian Wallumrød’s, ‘Low Genths’, imbued with an acute psychological drama and on which Wallumrød also performs.
The pianist also crops up on the lovely opener ‘Prelude for HS’ written by Laurence Crane, an Oxford-born composer who has worked with Norwegian chamber asamisimasa who Stene (and Orning who’s on four tracks) has also worked with. A rewarding listen, this notated highly detailed contemporary classical chamber music is nevertheless completely compatible with a jazz sensibility despite the lack of improvisation (but not improvisers) at play. Lush Laments climbs into a sound space that we’re now so used to, 45 years into the ECM era, where genre distinctions between minimalist chamber music and jazz (particularly styles of the latter that take as their starting point spatially-free milestones such as In a Silent Way) blur to erase those invisible but divisive barriers to the point of irrelevance.
Released on 14 April