Kerkko Koskinen, Linda Fredriksson and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, Agatha 2, Ricky-Tick ***(****)

More, much much more than a curate's egg - in other words better than just very decent in places but the key tracks are the first 4 of the 8. The first Agatha featuring Ilmiliekki Quartet Eurogreat Verneri Pohjola came out in 2007. Pianist, …

Published: 31 Mar 2023. Updated: 13 months.

More, much much more than a curate's egg - in other words better than just very decent in places but the key tracks are the first 4 of the 8. The first Agatha featuring Ilmiliekki Quartet Eurogreat Verneri Pohjola came out in 2007. Pianist, arranger, composer Kerkko Koskinen's style is syncretic and ranges from a kind of a Nino Rota inspiration dotted by debts to the serenity of Gil Evans, a sound impossible to avoid thinking about at the modal heart of the arranging, and even on 'Parade' moving into the more evanescent area Roy Budd never quite excavated. There is even again referring to 'Parade' a bit of a Peter and the Wolf type Prokofiev subliminal resemblance smuggled in during a brief diversion of a passage.

A cod tango - kiitos! - with vocals in Finnish at the indulgent end on 'Quiberon' is largely for home consumption but big fun even bearing in mind the language barrier. The UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra is nimble and responsive and in saxist Linda Fredriksson, basically a free player the salt to the sweeter inclinations of the orchestra, best heard in that winning wild aesthetic nobility that she has long since made her own on the touching but mercifully very unAndré Rieu-like 'Anime Waltz'. The soloist casting is immaculate.

MORE READING:

Linda Fredriksson and Kerkko Koskinen. Graphic: Tero Ahonen

Tags:

PJEV, Kit Downes, Hayden Chisholm, Medna Roso, Red Hook ****

An extraordinary choral, saxophone, pipe organ work recorded at Cologne's neogothic Catholic Agneskirche 18 months ago. The work relishes a process of transformation by crossing from both the temporal and spiritual spheres into an entirely other …

Published: 31 Mar 2023. Updated: 13 months.

Next post

CJW_Hadenzone_2x3_@niclasweber-9

An extraordinary choral, saxophone, pipe organ work recorded at Cologne's neogothic Catholic Agneskirche 18 months ago. The work relishes a process of transformation by crossing from both the temporal and spiritual spheres into an entirely other worldly dimension.

Think of the way the Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbarek leapt the centuries and successfully collided the relative modernity of the saxophone into ancient monastic choral traditions on Officium and Mnemosyne in the 1990s.

But instead by some way of contrast Medna Roso, which introduces Zagreb based microtonal New Zealand saxophonist Hayden Chisholm, who also utilises the sound of the Indian bellows instrument the shruti box among his array of contributions, is in collaboration with the PJEV choir. Very still and often lament laden rising up from the fearful rumble of a great Rieger 3-manual pipe organ Kit Downes is a stately presence - think Keith Jarrett on 1970s album Hymns/Spheres.

Directed by Jovana Lukic this Zagreb a cappella 5 piece ensemble - whose members are also Zvezdana Ostojic, Gloria Lindeman, Lana Hosni and Julijana Lesic - sing the ancient and often deeply moving music of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

CJW_Hadenzone_1x1_IG_@niclasweber-4-300x300

And while Medna Roso is not at all redolent of a Gurdjieff-type inspirational reverie that informed Jarrett so much down the years the outcome has somehow induced somehow a kind of autoscopy but certainly a strong numinous sense. Downes' work builds on a template set on Wedding Music, the Norwich now Berlin based musician's album with Huddersfield's Tom Challenger.

  • Medna Roso is out on 5 May. 'Listaj goro ne žali be’ara' is streaming. PJEV, main picture, and with Hayden Chisholm, above; Kit Downes top. Photos: Niclas Weber

MORE READING AND LISTENING: