Released

The more time progresses, and the more the Information age exposes us to music from all eras and areas, the harder it is for genre fusions to surprise. Which makes this collaborative album all the more impressive. It contains a lot of things: ECM-style European jazz, minimalist composition, various Mediterranean and Central European folk sounds, the delicate Malian kora playing of Ballaké Sissoko. But these flow together as if in a dream, and in doing so are constantly remade afresh. It’s reminiscent of the way the Penguin Café Orchestra cut folk, jazz and classical influences completely loose from their origins in the pursuit of world building — and there are few higher compliments than that.

Joe Muggs

Suggestions
December Avenue cover

December Avenue

Tomasz Stańko
Arborescence cover

Arborescence

Aaron Parks
Nashville cover

Nashville

Bill Frisell
…For the Ghosts Within cover

…For the Ghosts Within

Ros Stephen, Gilad Atzmon, Robert Wyatt
Potsdamer Platz cover

Potsdamer Platz

Jan Lundgren
Birdies for Lulu cover

Birdies for Lulu

Billy Mintz, Scott Colley, Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldman