It’s hard to choose just one track from new EP Symbiosis.
But if push were to come to shove I’d go for the bravura, long form 13 minute piece ‘Echoes’ among these three. All are great. This one has such solemnity and unfolding grandeur paradoxically modestly and mindfully arrived at.
It’s a collaboration between guzheng player Chang Jing – a guzheng is a Chinese zither – and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær.
Symbiosis issued towards the end of last week saw Chang Jing, a player who performed at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in a unique meet up with Khmer legend Molvær.
They recorded just a quarter of an hour after meeting. According to the captioning on YouTube this was a process that had ”no prior discussion, no written score – only instinct, emotion, and pure musical dialogue.”
It could all have gone horribly wrong.
But instead it’s something of a triumph.
There’s an epic otherworldliness – a blueness. An erasing of all categories and, ultimately, such balm.
Best new music I have heard this year. Molvaer is pure class every time.
This is up with his best.
Love the gushing sound with the trumpet, sounds likes mid-period metheny (Imaginary Day) on times.
OUSTANDING.