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TRACKLIST

1. Night Song (Evening Version)
2. Visitor
3. Fall
4. Edge
5. Reticence
6. Schubert Said
7. Adoro
8. Share
9. Melting Ice
10. Serene
11. The Other
12. Own
13. Sheen
14. Chain
15. Tar
16. Night Song (Morning Version)

SPOILER (Log)

SPOILER (Scans)

SPOILER (Info)

]Ketil Bjørnstad returns to the piano/cello duo, instrumentation which defined two of his best-loved albums, "The River" and "Epigraphs" with David Darling, back in 1996 and 1998. This new collaboration with Svante Henryson, however, tells a different story. As cellist, Henryson currently works in duos and trios with distinguished classical musicians including pianists Roland Pöntinen and Bengt Forsberg, clarinettist Martin Fröst, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and baritone Mikael Samuelson. ECM listeners, however, first heard him as a member of Jon Balke’s Magnetic North Orchestra on "Kyanos" (2001). In jazz contexts, he has also played in diverse formations with Tord Gustavsen, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvaer, Arild Andersen and others. In rock and pop, he has collaborated with artists from Yngwie Malmsteen to Elvis Costello. In brief, he is an artistic polymath, rather like composer/improviser/author Bjørnstad himself. The music they create together - atmospheric, dark-hued, of melancholic temperament - is similarly beyond category.

Night Song is a brilliantly appropriate title for the latest ECM outing from pianist Ketil Bjornstad and cellist Svante Henryson. The disc contains 16 duets between piano and cello, and was recorded in Oslo, Norway in 2009. Like so many releases from Manfred Eicher’s ECM label, the resulting music is not easily described. It is obvious that he as a producer gently pushes his artists towards their best work, it is also just as clear that the visions of the musicians are of paramount importance in the process.

The 16-song cycle Night Song is a pure example of this approach. According to Bjornstad in the liner notes: "It is always special for a musician when an ECM production evolves through a dialog with Manfred Eicher from the very beginning. It can perhaps be compared to what an actor feels when working with a film director. His own aesthetic sense and creative techniques can be so compelling that the actor, or musician, willingly defers to a conceptual universe that may have a wider scope than the ideas he or she may have been working on."

While I have no way of knowing what (if anything) was altered from Bjornstad’s 12 compositions, or Henryson’s four - it seems that a way was found to blend them into individual pieces which nontheless tell a fascinating story. Again in the liner notes, Bjornstad reflects on what his ideas were at the time of composition. "I took my own ideas of Schubert as a point of departure...Night Song was conceived as a musical dialogue with Schubert and as a tribute to him."

The disciplined chamber music Bjornstad and Henryson belie the wealth of emotion texture each track evokes. In fact, one of the more enjoyable elements of listening to this incredibly soothing piece of work is picking out the various "quotes" (mostly indirect) that the composers utilize in realizing their own sense of nighttime.

From the very beginning, Night Song is meant to evoke the hours between sunset and sunrise. This is set forth with track one, "Night Song (Evening Version)." The piano of Ketil suggests a slowly darkening horizon, while Svante’s cello traces the steps beside him - with both walking out of the light and into the dark together.

Кётил Бьёрнстад (норв. "Ketil Bjornstad", род. 25 апреля 1952) - норвежский пианист и композитор. Известный писатель-романист (опубликовано порядка 20 книг). Сотрудничал с виолончелистом Дэвидом Дарлингом (David Darling), барабанщиком Джоном Кристенсеном (Jon Christensen) и гитаристом Тержем Рипдалом (Terje Rypdal).

Кетил Бьорнстад уже в течение 30 лет работает в импровизационной музыке. Получив классическое музыкальное образование (в Осло, Лондоне и Париже), Бьорнстад в 1969 году стал солистом Филармонического оркестра Осло. Однако, познакомившись с альбомом Майлса Дэвиса (Miles Davis) In A Silent Way, пианист обратил свои музыкальные устремления в сторону джаза. В 1973 году он впервые сыграл с Йоном Кристенсеном (Jon Cristensen) и Арильдом Андерсеном (Arild Andersen). Игра на фортепиано Бьорнстада (прохладная и в то же время полная внутреннего огня) удивительно естественна.

Кетил Bjørnstad возвращается к дуэту фортепиано / виолончель , вы наверное помните два его самых любимых альбомов, "Река" и "Эпиграфы" с Дэвидом Дарлингом, в 1996 и 1998 годах. Этот, новый проект в сотрудничестве с Сванте Генрисон, однако, здесь другая история. Как виолончелист, Генрисон в настоящее время работает в дуэтах и трио с избранными классическими музыкантами в том числе с такими пианистами как Roland Pöntinen и Bengt Forsberg, кларнетист Мартин Фрост, меццо-сопрано Анна Софи фон Оттер и баритон Микаэла Самуэльсон. ECM слушатели, однако, впервые услышали его в качестве члена Jon Balke’s Magnetic North на "Kyanos" (2001). В джазовых контекстах, он также играл в различных формациях с Торд Gustavsen, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvaer, Arild Andersen и другие. В рок-и поп, он сотрудничал с музыкантами из Ингви Мальмстин и Элвис Костелло. Короче говоря, он является художественным эрудитом, а как композитор и импровизатор Bjørnstad называет себя. Музыку, которую они создают вместе - атмосферные, печально-окрашенные, из меланхоличного темперамента северные пассажи .

Ketil Bjørnstad piano
Svante Henryson violoncello