Starflowers

Sinnika Langeland

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 21, 2007)
• Original Release Date: May 28, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ecm Records
• ASIN: B000PGTHOY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #233,051 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Starflowers is the fascinating debut recording from Norwegian vocalist and kantele player Sinikka Langeland. The album is a brilliant confluence of folk music, sung poetry and Nordic improvisation. A folk singer from Finnskogen, Norway's `Finnish forest' land, Langeland explores in her work the relationship between man and nature. All of the texts on the album are derived from the poetry of Hans Børli (1918-89), a lumberjack whose poetry is alive with his experiences of the Norwegian forests. On Starflowers, Sinikka is joined by four fellow Scandinavians: Norway's Arve Henriksen (trumpet) and Trygve Seim (saxophones), Sweden's Anders Jormin (double-bass) and Finland's Markku Ounaskari (percussion). Henriksen, Seim and Jormin are veterans of numerous ECM jazz recordings. Born in 1961 to a Norwegian father and Finnish mother, Sinikka Langeland has drawn upon both sides of her cultural heritage. The instrument she plays is Finnish, a 39 string kantele or `table harp.' After growing up around classical music, Sinikka became interested in folk music in her teens and at age 20 began researching rune songs, incantations, old melodies from Finland and Karelia, as well as little known medieval ballads and religious folk songs. Since the early 1990s, she has been working and recording with jazz musicians as part of her ensembles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's ECM, January 26, 2008

By	Sean Hughes - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The good news is: It's ECM. The bad news is: It's ECM. If you're familiar with the ECM ethos, the light touch, the airy, and in this case spiritual, sound, this is great. This, despite the Jazz quartet lineup, is NOT Jazz; it is World Music. A couple pieces, especially the fourth song, have a little avant-garde feel, but this is ECM. However, much of the music sounds like Tony Scott's "Music For Zen Meditation," with a few selections that have a John Adams mimimalist sound, with a light pizzicato strings on a kantele. Sinikka's voice is soft and ethereal, and the Norwegian sounds like Irish to me, like Karan Casey's beautiful Irish folksongs. This CD is a perfect match for staring into a fireplace late at night. The CD booklet doesn't have any info on the musicians, but it does have translations of the songs. The sad fact about this CD is the outrageous ECM price. Buy two Mingus CDs? Buy five on emusic, or this one? As good as this music is, I'm not sure it's worth that sacrifice.