Europe Jazz Network: Media Chart 2021
Europe Jazz Network (EJN) is a nonprofit Europe-wide association of producers, presenters and supporting organisations who specialise in creative music, contemporary jazz and improvised music created from a distinctly European perspective.
Euro Jazz Media Chart — a selection of the hot new music surfacing across the continent this month by the top European jazz magazines and websites.
Every month at the Europe Jazz Network Media Chart 2021, we publish a newly released album, which interested us most of all.
October, 2021
SonCe Trio
Five Seasons
2021 (self-released)
Review by Katherine Zyabluk
Ukrainian vocalist Maryana Golovchenko moved to the Netherlands in 2011 to continue her music studies. She proved to be a well-rounded musician, manager and teacher, creatively rooted in Ukrainian musical heritage. A few years ago, in 2019, she founded the SonCe Trio with Pau Sola Masafrets on cello and Cengiz Arslanpay on modular synthesisers and woodwinds.
In September 2021, they have recorded their debut album entitled Five Seasons, where musicians’ versatility and immersion in different musical spheres helped to display Maryana’s statement. Ancient Ukrainian ritual songs, arranged in the order of four seasons, represent the initial version of the life cycle. The fifth season merges them all and leaves freedom for the listeners’ interpretation. Maryana’s voice is an exquisite combination of traditional folk singing and expressive melodic ornaments. Together with synthesisers and cello, it serves to underline the rhythm, make it sound unpredictable and trancelike at the same time — just like in ritual songs. Moreover, there is a lot of place for thoughtful melodies, which are still tightly connected with the pulse; they create a placid pastel landscape, which probably musicians could imagine during the recording. Five Seasons isn’t just a musical album. It could work with dance, theatre or fine art performance and convey the story clearly and beautifully. It is like an introduction to the history of Ukrainian folk adapted to modern perception and should have its place in the world music’s anthology.
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The full Europe Jazz Media Chart (October) is here.
November, 2021
Horse Orchestra
The Milkman Cometh
2021 (self-released)
Review by Katherine Zyabluk
The Milkman Cometh by the pan-Nordic ensemble Horse Orchestra could be named the anthology – recordings from different performances from 2018 collected under one cover and represent an essential mood of that bright and forward-thinking band. Chaos, playfulness combined with a great technique and advanced compositional forms – it is the main trait, which is immediately audible. Having control over the musical chaos, Horse Orchestra slightly oscillate between original compositions of members, – the pianist Jeppe Zeeberg, the trombonist Petter Hängsel and the bassist Nicolai Kaas Claesson – and arrangements of George Gershwin’s and David Whittaker’s compositions. There is a lot of fun – we can hear the laugh of the audience, quizzical melodies from musicians, unpredictable changes in dynamics. As it should be on a good live recording. The only sad thing is that we can’t notice their behaviour and style through the recording.
The full Europe Jazz Media Chart (November) is here.
December, 2021
Mateusz Pałka
Blur
2021 (Echo Prodution)
Review by Katherine Zyabluk
Blur is the second album by the Polish pianist and composer Mateusz Palka. Either his first solo recording, made in the spacious Monochrom Studio far away in mountains. It’s important to know for creating a proper canvas of associations while listening.
The album contains 14 short pieces, like classical etudes or a series of impressionistic paintings, in which Mateusz put the essence of his composing approach, emotions he is dealing with and transforming them into sound. He does it sensuously, with natural noble and truthfulness, called to evoke the sense of vivid nostalgia, making listeners miss places they have never been.
From the very beginning music fully captures the space and invites you to a journey through vital stories. They are different — melodious “Portrait In Water”, “Aria” or “Moje Serce”, contemplative “Lament for K.P.”, “Yuyuan Garden” and “Ginkgo Leaf” calm you down, both “Variations” and “Blur” are life-enhancing sound clusters, then “Mystic River” along with “Etude D’Une Nuit” are deeply resonating with heartstrings, encourage listening to them in an eternal circle. There will always be something new to discover – as in real life.
All of these short expressions from Blur create the intimate holistic tale, still courageous and confident, as every solo recording is. It fills up with a unique sense of beauty, which can heal and rescue these messy times.
The full Europe Jazz Media Chart (December) is here.