Volume 27 Issue 1 - September / October 2021

detached notes. From calm to faster intense
moments, a shift to major tonality closer
to the end creates a happier hopeful feel of
COVID ending. Two other piano-only tracks
are included.
Pacanowski takes a memorable musical
leap to improvise with himself playing on
other instruments. In 8. flute/piano, he
breathes life into dramatic high, held-flute
notes, detached sections and energetic, almost
new-music sounds, as his piano mimics and
supports in modern jazz at its very best. More
jazz with a brief atonal section in alto saxophone
and piano stylings in 14. alto sax/
piano. He plays clarinet, keys and piano harp
elsewhere.
Pacanowski’s well-thought-out “homemade”
jazzy compositions and improvisations
make for a great release to listen to, both
upfront and as background music.
Tiina Kiik
Koki Solo
Natsuki Tamura
Libra Records 101-066 (librarecords.com)
! Executive
produced by the
incomparable
Satoko Fujii and
recorded in Natsuki
Tamura’s own
home, Koki Solo
is a collection of
improvisations that
equally showcase Tamura’s decades of playing
experience and his boundless curiosity. He
breaks with conventions of instrumentation
and form with admirable enthusiasm and
assurance. Beyond his typical innovations on
the trumpet, he also experiments with piano,
voice and even cookware from his kitchen.
While he admittedly doesn’t have anywhere
near the same mastery on instruments other
than trumpet, it doesn’t stop him from doing
amazing work. For example, during his
piano improvising on Bora, Tamura’s patient
drone in his left hand engages in compelling
dialogues with both the open melodicism of
his right hand and his arresting vocal exclamations.
Similarly, on Karugamo, the detailed,
textural tour through the contents of his
kitchen gradually evolves into a rhythmical
call-and-response with his forcefully enunciated
syllables.
Regardless of the various unfamiliar waters
Tamura dips his toes into, he is the definition
of a master improviser, and that translates
to everything he does. Not a single phrase he
plays or utters is an afterthought, or a throwaway.
Every note is imbued with feeling and
meaning and he expertly uses space to punctuate
and emphasize. Fujii’s spotless production
complements Tamura’s style perfectly,
ensuring there is nary a detail in the music
that sounds insignificant. An abundance of
tangible passion can be felt in the performance
of Koki Solo, and it’s infectious.
Yoshi Maclear Wall
POT POURRI
Armenian Songs for Children
Isabel Bayrakdarian
Avie AV2449 (naxosdirect.com/search/
av2449)
! A tribute
to Isabel
Bayrakdarian’s
personal heritage,
this collection of
songs plays like a
musical kaleidoscope
– everchanging
reflective
melodies are connected to beautiful and
simple forms, creating a magical sonic space.
The 29 tracks are comprised of compositions
by Armenian composer and musicologist
Gomidas Vartabed (aka Komitas) and
his students Parsegh Ganatchian and Mihran
Toumajan, as well as some traditional songs.
One should not be deceived by the fairly
slow tempos, there is plenty of movement
here – swinging, rocking, bouncing, clapping.
A wooden horse and a monkey hang around,
and a scarecrow and a nightingale make
friends. On the deeper level, there is much
longing and sorrow connected to dreams
and memories of the Armenian nation and
their history. The melodies of these songs are
beautiful, sometimes playful, often poignant.
The arrangements are sparse, creating an
abundance of space for breath and colour.
Some of these songs have been sung through
five generations of Bayrakdarian’s family and
one cannot help but feel the sense of intimacy
and immediacy that comes from the weight
of life experiences.
Bayrakdarian is phenomenal in conveying
the emotional context of these songs. Her
voice is willowy and soothing at the same
time and she is quite successful in combining
the embellishments of folk idioms with the
clarity of classical expression. The accompanying
ensemble – Ellie Choate (harp),
Ray Furuta (flute) and Ruben Harutyunyan
(duduk) – has an understated elegance to it,
allowing the intensity of Bayrakdarian’s voice
to come through.
Ivana Popovic
Hourglass
Murray McLauchlan
True North Records TND777
(truenorthrecords.com)
! Murray
McLauchlan, celebrated
singer-songwriter
and recipient
of the Order of
Canada, has turned
to such issues as
privilege and racism
on his 20th album,
Hourglass. Its pointed songs speak sincerely
and directly to issues of greed and prejudice
that make so many lives unliveable.
These are folk-style, gentle and homey
songs, sometimes nearly whispered, although
I think McLauchlan’s vocal mid- and upperranges
are just fine! His acoustic guitar work,
Burke Carroll’s steel guitar and other instruments
are always reliable. Indeed, nothing on
this album is overcomplicated and some of
the songs would attract the interest of both
children and parents.
I particularly like the title track, which
emphasizes the urgency of current problems:
“But I see the sand run out through the hourglass,
I swear I don’t remember it ever ran so
fast.” Here lyrics and melody, guitar accompaniment
and the steel overlay come together
especially well. Lying By the Sea I find the
most moving song. It is based on the tragic
media image of a refugee boy fleeing the
Middle East who drowned and washed up on
shore. America, with a beautiful steel guitar
introduction, is a plea to the USA that could
also apply in Canada: “Now you’re in your
separate rooms, And all the doors are locked.”
Finally, I Live on a White Cloud and Shining
City on a Hill are songs reminding us of our
obliviousness – to racism and to reality itself.
Roger Knox
Dressed in Borrowed Light
Clara Engel
Independent (claraengel.bandcamp.com)
! Songwriter
Clara Engel has
been busy during
the pandemic,
completing two
collections of
songs entirely selfproduced
while at
home, based on
lyrics that read like
extended poetry and dressed in an album
cover featuring Engel’s original artwork.
In Dressed In Borrowed Light, dark, evocative
themes of cycles of life, loss and nature
float atop rhythmic drone-like melodies that
leave plenty of room for the poetry to come
through. This is a performance much like
one might find at a poetry reading or meditative
retreat, and a collection of guests adds
an assortment of instrumental sounds that
provide some additional ethereal qualities,
bringing to the album a meditative, folklike
feel.
Musical arrangements include Engel on
vocals and a collection of instruments such as
shruti box, gusli, lap steel and morin khuur
(Mongolian horse-head fiddle), which delicately
add colour to the songs.
A shorter album than some, it’s six tracks
flow gently as a collection of spoken word set
to music. From one poem to the next it makes
a soft landing, belying some of the darker
themes of the lyrics.
Cheryl Ockrant
thewholenote.com September and October 2021 | 49