Customer Reviews

Epigraphs

5 star:		(4)
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This recording is the second duo collaboration on the ECM label for pianist Ketil Bjornstad and cellist David Darling. The music is achingly beautiful, carrying one along as if it is a dance in slow motion, with each note just perfect at just the right time. Even though it invokes an almost meditative calm, it is quite different from other acoustic new age efforts. Rather than simply being background or sonic wallpaper, there is real depth to the compositions. Or are they improvisations, because one senses that this music flows directly from the hearts of the artists rather than their heads. Their previous effort, The River (ECM 1593), is equally entrancing. As in all ECM recordings, the superb sound quality just adds to the magic.

This CD has one of the most beutiful musics I've ever heard (and I'm really into music) - it's the second one, named "upland". I strongly advise you to get this CD if you like to be challenged to accept your solitude. Simply perfect music!

David Darling's cello work typically gets labeled as new age. However, in a number of his works (this one included) released under ECM Records, he's also bordered straight up classical music. In this recording he is joined by pianist Ketil Bjornstad in a sublime production that blends the classical and the contemporary, effortlessly transporting the listener to Scandinavian fjords and open landscapes under overcast skies. Sounds like a score to a movie? If it were, I wouldn't miss it. Ever since I first borrowed it from the library, a couple of years ago, I had been determined to buy my own copy.

This Ketil Bjornstad and David Darling collaboration is so beautiful and unlike anything else out there that it's difficult to review it. I don't think this music is "new age," but it's definitely not "classical" either...the closest comparison to this would be the Jocelyn Pook and Dominic Harlan tracks from the Eyes Wide Shut soundtrack. My advice is to listen to the samples on Amazon--and if you like them, the album won't disappoint.