Thick
8 panel digipak covers.
For fans of SET FIRE TO FLAMES, RACHELS, ARVO PART and the ECM catalogue in general.
''The
Alvaret Ensemble is a new improvisatory collective based around Greg Haines
(piano), Jan Kleefstra (voice, poems), Romke Kleefstra (guitar and effects) and
Sytze Pruiksma (percussion). This self-titled 2xCD/2xLP is our first release,
and was recorded over three nights at the Grunewaldkirche in Berlin by Nils
Frahm in August of 2011. In keeping with the spirit of the project, other musicians
were invited to the sessions to add their own colour and further add to the
spontaneity of the recording. In the end, those collaborators played an
important part in defining the sound of the album i¿½ Iden Reinhart played
violin, as did Peter Broderick, while Hilary Jeffery (Kilimanjaro Darkjazz
Ensemble etc.) provided the album with its mournful trombone tones. Martyn
Heyne, who was just there to help out with recording, ended up unleashing the
church's organ and bringing a completely new element and sense of power to the
album. We had been talking about recording together for a long time before
finally setting the date and the location, so there was a strong sense of
anticipation as we began to set-up the space for recording. Then, without
scores or discussion, we began to play. In the beautiful and bright acoustics
of the Grunewaldkirche, it soon became clear that even when playing incredibly
quietly, the sound still filled the room and the tiny details or blemishes that
we began to notice in the sound became the compositional tools that informed
the recording. Recorded entirely at night, the candlelit atmosphere further
added to the level of concentration and interconnectivity, and quickly the
pieces began to take on lives of their own i¿½ it was as if with just a little
guidance they would play out by themselves; as if the scores were already
written and we were simply reciting what we had spent years composing. So many
months of thoughts and ideas quickly began to pour out into something that instantly
began to feel complete. Of course this feel of completeness was also
supplemented with a sense of excitement that the idea was working, that
something was beginning to take shape - that an album that we are now all
immensely proud was being created right there, in the moment. We were left with
around 12 hours of recordings, which we then spent months immersing ourselves
in and began to craft something that would later become two discs i¿½ something
that can be viewed as two separate entities or as one lengthy statement. When
all was in order, Nils Frahm and Greg got together in his workspace, Durton
Studio, and mixed and mastered it with the precise attention to detail that the
music deserved.'' - The Alvaret Ensemble.
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