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Birmingham
Improv 04



Tuomo Haapala

Vattenvirlar/Movements In Rapid water

 
 

If you celebrate how Osvaldo Golijov refuses to recognize musical category boundaries and, partly as a result, comes up with treasures aplenty, you may be inclined to enjoy the Swedish composer/improvisor Tuomo Haapala.
“The World from Inside” takes bellwork plaintiveness to a place that suggests Arvo Part’s pieces reworked into a more earthy strain and makes for pleasurably meditative results. “Midnight Music on the Water” blends free jazz, elk vocalizations (a Haapala regular feature) and almost Orff-like small vocal ensemble singing into a unified whole.
It works very well indeed and not just because the seemingly disparate styles here sound like they were always meant to be natural mates. “The Continents Move in the Night” also harmonizes an unlikely array of musics, crossing cultures and centuries in a startling way. This piece alone would be worth the price of the record. The recording date for this disc is 1996 so this qualifies for a hidden masterpiece. But really all the pieces here (which fuse composition and improv to the point where I can’t tell which is which) are wonderfully inventive, consonant Nordic gems.
Very highly recommended.

 

Caprice 

CAP 21524

 

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Richard Grooms