Born in 1978 in Helmund, The Netherlands, Acda has long established her reputation as an original songwriter and singer. I confess I had not come across her music until this release came to me for review, but this is a fine, often rather moving album (sample I Can’t Make You Love Me and the title track) which has made me eager to hear more.
Somewhat in the manner of many a Nordic female vocalist of recent years, Acda delivers her reflective lyrics in a laid-back, minimal and intimate, almost spoken rather than sung manner (sometimes double-tracked). This gives ample opportunity for her accompanists to make their comments and contributions in the most unforced yet effective way, drifting in and out of the diverse poetic narratives which mark the lyrics. And what accompanists they are.
Bill Frisell appeared with Acda on the 2018 release Live At Jazz Middelheim. Many will know his astutely cast collaborations with double-bassist Thomas Morgan on the two relatively recent ECM releases Small Town and Epistrophy and the pair are the perfect couple to offer gentle anchor points within the floating world of love and loss, remorse and longing which Acda creates here.
Everyone else is equally up to the mark: here is music where the listener senses that any hint of the declamatory (as in parts of Taking Part, Silently Held and Seafoam) will surely give way to the understated accent, to the spacious and the exquisitely wrought. Some may see this as a recipe for boredom but I would rather acknowledge and enjoy the patiently interwoven, even entrancing elements present in this quietly magical music.
Discography
One Day One Life; I Can’t Make You Love Me; Above; Hear It Out; The Friends Parade; Silently Held; Taking Part; Seafoam; The Barn (52.14)
Acda (v, g); Bill Frisell (elg); Thomas Morgan (b); Eric Thielemans (d); Colin Stetson, Kurt Van Herck (s); Shahzad Ismaily (g, pc, p, Moog); Joachim Badenhorst (cl); Niels Van Heertum (euph); Jozef Drummond (p). Brooklyn, n.d., c. 2023.
Challenge Records CR 73574
