Eyvind Kang's "The Yelm Sessions"
OK, so I said there was no Top Ten of 2007 list, just the ONE...
But, for the runner up-! Eyvind Kang, a composer and string player/multi-instrumentalist/improvisor based in Seattle, longtime collaborator with the likes of Bill Frisell, Mike Patton, the Sun City Girls, and member of the Persian surf music outfit Secret Chiefs 3; he's also sessioned with all sorts of bands, he might be on one of your cds and you don't know it yet! I've enjoyed his world/jazz improv/impossible-to-peg music, solo and otherwise, for a long time.
He's just released his latest collection on Tzadik records a couple of weeks ago, and I've been playing it nonstop...
This album is a welcome return to the form of his earlier albums on the Tzadik label (7 Nades, The Story of Iceland, Theater of Mineral Nades), of shorter pieces in a variety of styles, played with various orchestras and small ensembles, with acoustic sounds, strings, horns and reeds predominant.
The opening track, "The Clown's Song" is a sweet, elegaic string trio (violin, viola, cello, all played by EK). It's followed by a piece of exotica called "Enter the Garden", a lush tango featuring Jessika Kenney as the Voice of Xtabay.
The idea of this music as film soundtrack material is never too far away - maybe, soundtracks for films that might have been made in the 15th century. There is something ancient and otherworldly in the sound. You can hear the influence of Ennio Morricone, as well as certain 'minimalist' composers...I don't like to use the term minimalist, suggesting an absence or starkness, because there is a whole lot going on here. There's a sense of intentional restraint, the music moves ahead deliberately, with subtle changes.
(Ugh, writing about music/dancing about architecture innit.)
Certain other albums better fit that 'minimalist' tag - the ethereal 70 minute long "Virginal Coordinates" suite; and the droneful "Live Low to the Earth In the Iron Age" album (both recommended...)
Two instrumental miniatures, the ever-mutating "Sepulcia Variation" and lyrical "Hiemarmene" frame a major piece, the impressionistic "Hawk's Prairie"; by its title suggesting a sound-world, of an exhilarating ride on air thermals over rugged wilderness, discordant string and reed sounds clashing and rising in intensity, to end with Eyvind's solo violin shrieking and crying, to silence.
Jessika Kenney appears again in 'Mistress Mine', with a lyric from Shakespeare.
Another longer tune, "Asa Tru" features an Italian orchestra in quietly pulsating support of a gorgeous, emotive 'singing' violin solo by North Indian improvisor extraordinaire, Kala Ramnath.
Not music for everybody, but for those with a taste for the unusual, looking for musical adventure outside of category, Eyvind Kang provides a deep well to draw from.
I know that this album is going to continue inspiring me for many years to come.
God's legs! You can hear it track by track at Rhapsody!
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