Leonor Palazzo’s sombre cello opens the first track of this five-women, two-men ensemble. Leader Merge Kägu says the album is about an intimate journey and finding herself. Her springy guitar licks change the mood of “To Find Yourself Is To Lose Yourself” to bright and engaging. That cello is still in the doldrums though, even at a brisk tempo. The piece closes with dark guitar, another change of mood and pace.
This music vacillates between improvised jazz and classical writing but manages to achieve a sort of soulful, part joyous, part melancholy mood. The leader’s crisp guitar stylings and Palazzo’s moody cello offer the best of the solo work but the entire group integrate together harmonically and rhythmically. Marina Cyrino on flute and Bianca Sans Ballart on English horn are prominent on the slow, stark “When Silence Falls”.
Discography
Kägu (elg); Anders Jormin (b); Jesse Ojajarvi (d); Asa B. Johansson (vn, v) and others. 2017.
Losen 207
