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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
<www.toccata.nu>
Richard
Grooms
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