THE NGUYÊN LÊ TRIO — Bakida (2000) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1        Dding Dek    5:22
2        Madal    6:51
3        Encanto    5:45
4        Bakida    4:41
5        Chinoir    5:10
6        Noche Y Luz    4:35
7        Feel Feliz 4:59
Music By – Fons
8        Heaven 5:20
Music By – Borker
9        Lü    6:10
10        Romanichel    5:03
Credits :
Nguyên Lê -Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar [Electroacoustic], Computer [Editing], Synth [Programmed]
Renaud Garcia-Fons - Bass [Acoustic 5 String Bass]
Tino di Geraldo - Drums, Percussion

And Guests:
Chris Potter -  Tenor Saxophone (tracks: 2, 5)
Paolo Fresu -  Trumpet, Flugelhorn (tracks: 9)
Carles Benavent - Bass [Electric 5 String Bass] (tracks: 3, 8)
Kudsi Erguner - Ney (tracks: 1)
Jon Balke -  Piano (tracks: 10)
Karim Ziad - Instruments [Gumbri, Tarija], Karkabas, Bendir, Vocals (tracks: 9)
Illya Amar - Marimba, Gong [Tuned]  (tracks: 1)
Hao Nhiên Pham – Flute [Meo & Sao]  (tracks: 9)

JON BALKE | ANIMA ALAOUI - Siwan (2009) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Siwan, the title of keyboardist and composer Jon Balke's sixth album for ECM, is derived from a mixed language known as "Aljamiado," spoken during the Spanish Inquisition. Scholars define the word as "equilibrium" or "balance." In a sense, the definition of the title is key to this gorgeous work by Balke. Commissioned by the Oslo Club Cosmopolite in 2006, Balke decided to create a program of composed and improvised music that would cross three cultures and time periods. First he invited Moroccan vocalist Amina Alaoui to perform with his own international group, and enlisted Bjarte Eike's early music group Barokksolistene as well. This intersection of cultures north and south -- Gharnati music that comes from the Spanish Al-Andalus period (730-1492) of Alaoui's own heritage, the Baroque music played by Eike's orchestra, and the Scandinavian improvised music and jazz played by Balke's group -- intersect not only three periods, but cultures, at the only crossroads where identity can be fused seamlessly: music. Balke's band includes trumpeter Jon Hassell -- a creator of "Fourth World Music" and no stranger to unusual hybrids -- violinist Kheir Eddine Mekachiche, percussionist Helge Norbakken, and zarb player Pedram Khavar Zamini. The music here is of almost indescribable beauty. Alaoui sings the poems of Al-Andalus poets, and is backed by a free-flowing group that combines the Arab violin tradition with the older Muslim Gharnati, the spacious, icy jazz of the far Northern hemisphere, and the classical discipline of the Baroque period, where improvisation intersects seamlessly with composition, where the theatrical and historical meld flawlessly and seem to grow from the same seed. The emotional transference of all the players of the material Balke has composed (and here, conducted) is total and indeed feels like an entirely new genre of music. The listener can discern the individual elements, and experience the blur between them where something else emerges, something wholly Other, but whose shadows and traces have been gleaned from earlier times, as they've gone on to influence this new, eternal present. Check the gorgeous percussion that engages Hassell and Alaoui in "Itimad." Listen to the glorious interaction between the harpsichord, Hassell, and the strings in "Zahori," and feel the layers of time simply peel away. Every track here reveals something unusual, brings something hidden and alien to the fore even as it beguiles the listener with its intimacy of secret histories and knowledge. Siwan is Balke's masterpiece thus far, and will hopefully become as influential as it is groundbreaking.
>This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa'<
Tracklist :
1    Tuchia 5'52
(Jon Balke)
2    O Andalusin 2'26
(Amina Alaoui, Jon Balke)
3    Jadwa 5'17
(Amina Alaoui, Jon Balke)
4    Ya Safwati 5'18
(Jon Balke, Amina Alaoui)
5    Ondas do mar de Vigo 4'29
(Amina Alaoui, Jon Balke)
6    Itimad 6'42
(Amina Alaoui, Jon Balke)
7    A la dina dana 3'27
(Jon Balke, Amina Alaoui)
8    Zahori 4'57
(Jon Balke)
9    Ashiyin Raïqin 4'13
(Amina Alaoui, Jon Balke)
10    Thulâthiyat 10'04
(Amina Alaoui, Jon Balke)
11    Toda ciencia trascendiendo 12'22
(Jon Balke, Amina Alaoui)
Credits :
Jon Balke - Keyboards, Conductor
Barokksolistene   
Amina Alaoui - Vocal
Jon Hassell - Trumpet, Electronics
Helge Norbakken - Percussion
Pedram Khavar Zamini - Zarb
Bjarte Eike, Per Buhre, Peter Spissky, Anna Ivanovna Sundin, Miloš Valent, Kheir Eddine M'Kachiche - Violin
Rastko Roknic, Joel Sundin - Viola
Tom Pitt, Kate Hearne - Violoncello
Mattias Frostensson - Double-Bass
Andreas Arend - Theorboe, Archlute
Hans Knut Sveen - Harpsichord, Clavichord

MIKI N'DOYE - Tuki (2006) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    Intro 3'41
(Miki N'Doye)
2    Jahlena 4'19
(Miki N'Doye)
3    Loharbye 6'13
(Miki N'Doye)
4    Kokonum 8'28
(Miki N'Doye)
5    Rubato 6'19
(Miki N'Doye)
6    Dunya 6'02
(Miki N'Doye)
7    Tuki 3'25
(Miki N'Doye)
8    Kalimba 6 3'36
(Miki N'Doye)
9    Tonya 3'57
(Miki N'Doye)
10    Osa Yambe 4'08
(Miki N'Doye)
11    Box 4'25
(Miki N'Doye)
12    Me 4'06
(Miki N'Doye)
13    Ending 3'11
(Miki N'Doye)
Credits :
Miki N'Doye - Kalimba, Tamma, M'Balax, Bongo, Vocals
Jon Balke - Keyboards, Prepared Piano
Per Jørgensen - Trumpet, Vocals
Helge Norbakken - Percussion
Aulay Sosseh - Vocals
Lie Jallow - Vocals  

MATHIAS EICK - Midwest (2015) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick opts for a different approach on Midwest. Four years after the song-like Skala, his sophomore ECM date that has attained "classic" status in European critical circles, he employs notions of history, folk tradition, and dislocation. This album was inspired by Eick's time spent playing the American continent; his tour began on the West Coast. When he entered the rural, upper Midwest and encountered its vast open spaces, he began to feel a sense of "home." He later learned that over the past two centuries of immigration, over a million Norwegians had settled there. After conceiving a "road" album that would begin in Hem, the village of his birth, and traverse the ocean to America, Eick enlisted violinist Gjermund Larsen (a folk musician who has contributed to Christian Wallumrød's ECM recordings), pianist Jon Balke, double bassist Mats Eilertsen, and percussionist Helge Norbakken. The compositions are all lyrical, in typical Eick fashion, but with Larsen they take on a rougher, more earthen quality. The violinist's attention to the instrument's early, raw, root sound lends balance to these melodies, and the interplay between violin and trumpet throughout is not only alluring, but often arresting. On the title track, there is a gently euphoric feel as the lyric unfolds, which, via Larsen's violin and Norbakken's hand shakers (he's a member of the Batagraf ensemble), offers rhythmic and melodic traces of Native American song in contrast. "March," with gorgeous ostinato playing from Balke and halting arco work from Eilertsen, is much more open, embracing mode and rhythm along an improvisational line while Eick's horn takes on a flute-like quality in its lyricism. The tune's feel is not unlike those heard on Pat Metheny's early records for ECM, despite obvious textural and tonal differences. "Dakota"'s percussion evokes the thunder of bison hooves crossing the plains, as the ghostly, minor-key harmonic interplay suggests the spooky, imposing Black Hills. "Fargo," in an obvious nod to the Coen Brothers film, strings together a gentle, lullaby-esque folk song with strains of drama and humor. The darker violin meets Eick's trumpet in the head to contrast the familiar with the mysterious. Balke's lovely solo is particularly suggestive of the latter. Despite the obvious nods to America, Midwest is deliberately more Norwegian in its musical outlook than some of Eick's other recordings. Therefore, it perfectly illustrates the thematic frame of the journey he set out to portray: that of the immigrant encountering the unknown and embracing it, and in the process, creating a new personal and cultural history without forsaking the old one. ecm
Tracklist :
1    Midwest 5'11
(Mathias Eick)
2    Hem 5'14
(Mathias Eick)
3    March 5'53
(Mathias Eick)
4    At Sea 4'03
(Mathias Eick)
5    Dakota 4'55
(Mathias Eick)
6    Lost 5'43
(Mathias Eick)
7    Fargo 6'18
(Mathias Eick)
8    November 5'02
(Mathias Eick)
Credits :
Mathias Eick - Trumpet
Gjermund Larsen - Violin
Jon Balke - Piano
Mats Eilertsen - Double Bass
Helge Norbakken - Percussion

MATHIAS EICK - The Door (2008) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

It seems strange that The Door on ECM is 29-year-old trumpeter/composer Mathias Eick's debut album as a bandleader. Strange because despite his age, Eick has appeared on over 50 recordings already, five of them -- not including this one -- for ECM in the last four years. But it's not only that Eick is, like many of his generation in Norway, a very diverse musician whose tastes run from jazz to club to rock & roll to funk, it's more that these are all traditions that are opening up to one another in new ways in the 21st century (in Europe at least). Some evidence is in his choice of companions on The Door. Veteran pianist and fellow ECM labelmate Jon Balke is here, as is bassist and guitarist Audun Erlien (a member of Eivind Aarset's recording and touring groups), drummer Audun Kleive, who plays with Balke and Jan Garbarek's groups as well as performing on the Terje Rypdal/Ronni Le Tekrø albums, and the nearly ubiquitous multi-instrumentalist Stian Carstensen on pedal steel on three of the set's eight tunes.

Eick's tone on the trumpet is almost signature. It's warm but explores high registers quite comfortably without sounding thin. His compositions explore the relative boundary-blurring terrains between experimentalist notions, the purer melodies found in the folk musics of his region, and the exploration of various timbral extensions, As a leader he continually engages time and space explorations as the device of depth communication in skeletal but restrained frameworks. One of his lyric influences is certainly his countryman Garbarek. Eick takes a tune like the opening title number and pursues all of its melodic possibilities on his horn and a guitar as his ensemble picks up cues and travels down the same path, albeit at a different pace. On "Cologne Blues," he allows the feeling of both the blues and more elegiac traditional forms to dictate his solo path, even as Carstensen paints the backdrop with atmospheres more akin to arid terrains than these lush moody ones. On "Stavanger," mutant broken beat grooves and slightly angular ideas from Balke pose questions in forms, such as funky pastoral notions where lyric, and more challenging tonal ones encounter shifting rhythmic passages. Yet, as is always the case with Eick, the melodic theme returns in the same way that time is cyclical. Musical architectures and interrogative concepts push at one another inside the spaces he leaves, but they are bridged by his utterly magnificent lyricism.

Eick is an extremely canny player as well as a composer. He can smatter notes with the best of them, but he resists that temptation at every turn on The Door. Instead, he prefers to create quiet, groove-like statements that subtly encourage -- by way of seduction -- the listener's attention, which opens from curiosity to passive acceptance to active participation in each track. This is an excellent introduction to a player who has plenty to say and many ways of saying it. The Door is a beautifully mysterious and deeply satisfying entry in the ECM canon and a very auspicious debut.
(This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa')
Tracklist :
1    The Door 7'52
(Mathias Eick)
2    Stavanger 6'56
(Mathias Eick)
3    Cologne Blues 8'46
(Mathias Eick)
4    October 4'36
(Mathias Eick)
5    December 4'41
(Mathias Eick)
6    Williamsburg 7'20
(Mathias Eick)
7    Fly 4'32
(Mathias Eick)
8    Porvoo 4'13
(Mathias Eick)
Credits :
Mathias Eick - Trumpet, Guitar, Vibraphone
Jon Balke - Piano, Fender Rhodes
Audun Erlien - Electric Bass, Guitar
Audun Kleive - Drums, Percussion
Stian Carstensen - Pedal Steel Guitar

JON BALKE - Magnetic Works : 1993-2001 (2012) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This 2-CD anthology, assembled by Jon Balke, contains music from a trilogy of albums made in the period 1993 to 2001 by the Magnetic North Orchestra, drawing upon the same core of musicians, with Audun Kleive and Anders Jormin as the ensemble’s pulsating engine and Morten Halle, Per Jørgensen and, later, Arve Henriksen as the leading melodic improvising players. The integration of string players was a key element of the music, and the MNO worked with a high profiled line of musicians. Balke: “My agenda after leaving Oslo 13 was to work my way around the overwhelming big band sound as the defining characteristic of a large improvising ensemble. Inspired by Gil Evans, Claus Ogerman and Oum Khalsoum, I saw the possibility of blending my favourite musicians into a sound that could wrap itself around my compositional ideas.” The compilation includes music from Magnetic North’s ECM albums “Further” (1517) and “Kyanos” (1822) albums as well as nine tracks from the album “Solarized”, previously issued by Emarcy and long out-of-print. ecm
Tracklist 1 :
1    Departure    0:53
2    Changing Song    5:21
3    Flying Thing    4:56
4    Horizontal Song    4:56
5    Moving Carpet    5:19
6    Taraf    6:18
7    Shaded Place    4:38
8    Present Position    5:36
9    Solarized    6:40
10    Dark And Slow    5:34
11    In Degrees    1:31
Tracklist 2 :
1    Curve    7:51
2    Circular    4:04
3    Vertical    1:31
4    Encoded    3:44
5    Elusive Song    3:52
6    In Vitro    4:12
7    Plica    2:49
8    Zygotos    4:34
9    Karyon    3:04
10    Mutatio    4:53
11    Katabolic    5:04
12    Kyanos    3:44
All Credits

JON BALKE W / OSLO 13 - Nonsentration (1992) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    Stealing Space I    1:23
2    Stealing Space II    4:47
3    Stop    4:17
4    Blic    4:58
5    Constructing Stop    3:57
6    The Laws Of Freedom    4:50
7    Disappear Here    5:25
8    Nord    4:14
9    Circling The Square    5:47
10    The Art Of Being    3:26
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Morten Halle
Composed, Producer, Keyboards – Jon Balke
Design [Cover Design] – Barbara Wojirsch
Drums – Audun Kleive
Drums, Percussion – Jon Christensen
Percussion – Finn Sletten, Miki N'Doye
Tenor Saxophone – Arne Frang, Tore Brunborg
Trombone – Torbjørn Sunde
Trumpet – Nils Petter Molvær, Per Jørgensen

JON BALKE w / MAGNETIC NORTH ORCHESTRA - Further (1993) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

 Tracklist :
1    Departure    0:53
2    Step One    2:30
3    Horizontal Song    4:56
4    Flying Thing    4:55
5    Shaded Place    4:39
6    Taraf 6:16.
Soloist [Solo] – Morten Halle
7    Moving Carpet 5:18
Soloist [Solo] – Tore Brunborg
8    Eastern Front 3:45
Soloist [Solo] – Per Jørgensen
9    Changing Song    5:20
10    Wooden Voices    3:11
11    Arrival    0:58
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Morten Halle
Bass – Anders Jormin
Cello – Jonas Franke-Blom
Drums – Audun Kleive
Percussion – Marilyn Mazur
Piano, Keyboards, Composed By – Jon Balke
Producer – Manfred Eicher
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Tore Brunborg
Trumpet [Lead Trumpet] – Jens Petter Antonsen
Trumpet, Vocals – Per Jørgensen
Viola – Trond Villa
Violin – Gertrud Økland

JON BALKE | BATAGRAF - Statements (2005) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Norwegian pianist Jon Balke's new band, Batagraf, is named for, according to Balke himself, the Latin verb "battere": beat and graph, meaning "writer or writing." Given that there are four percussionists in this band -- five if you include Balke himself on occasional beat-mongering -- all of who had been introduced to Cuban bata drums (which originated in the African Yoruba tradition), where drums and voices were synched and intuitive across a circle of players and poems, stories and other speech patterns were emulated and recited. Great idea. Balke has been looking outside jazz and even improvised jazz norms for a while now. This set employs the drummers, electronic keyboards, sound processing, saxophone, trumpet, and four vocalists either singing, chanting, or reciting poetic texts. Sounds abstract, right? Yep. Even so, it is so earthy, so utterly rhythm-driven, even somewhat curmudgeonly jazzheads would be moving their feet as they complained about its postmodern approach. Frode Nymo's saxophone playing is utterly from the Ornette Coleman school of improvising -- where the saxophone uses song structures to play its part in the group dynamic. The drumming lends itself to progression and travel from within, as well as from without. Traditions blur and blend as vocals, texts, and horns enter and leave. Balke's keyboards are more atmospheric than improvisatory. They are informed by the drums and direct and paint the energy from there within the ensemble. Since most of the vocals are not in English, they too become extensions of the timeless rhythmic flow. This recording is magical, brave, and unconcerned with anything but the joy of performance. There is no deep thought at work, but there is plenty of deep feeling in these grooves. Balke is pointing in brave new directions here by using the past to create a present future tense that melds as it moves forward.
(This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa')
Tracklist :
1    Haomanna    6:16
2    Butano    4:39
3    Rraka    2:59
4    Doublespeak    5:59
5    Pregoneras Del Bosque    2:21
6    Betong    3:21
7    Altiett    4:16
8    En Vuelo    4:03
9    Pajaro    3:21
10    Whistleblower    5:58
11    Karagong    4:01
12    Unknown    7:01
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Frode Nymo
Design – Sascha Kleis
Composed By [All Compositions], Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals, Photography, Producer, Sounds [Sound Processing] – Jon Balke
Percussion – Harald Skullerud, Helge Andreas Norbakken, Ingar Zach, Kenneth Ekornes
Trumpet – Arve Henriksen
Vocals – Solveig Slettahjell
Voice – Jennifer Myskja Balke, Jocely Sete Camara Silva
Voice Actor [Text Recitals In English] – Sidsel Endresen
Voice Actor [Text Recitals In Wolof] – Miki N'Doye

JOHN BALKE & MAGNETIC NORTH ORCHESTRA - Kyanos (2002) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    Phanai    6:57
Jon Balke
2    Zygotos    4:35
Jon Balke
3    Mutatio    4:56
Jon Balke
4    Ganglion    6:44
Jon Balke
5    Katabolic    5:05
Jon Balke
6    In Vitro    4:12
Jon Balke
7    Plica    2:50
Jon Balke
8    Nano    2:50
Jon Balke
9    Karyon    3:06
Jon Balke
10    Kyanos    3:45
Jon Balke
11    Apsis    2:00
Svante Henryson
Credits :
Double Bass – Anders Jormin
Drums, Percussion – Audun Kleive
Piano, Keyboards – Jon Balke
Producer [Produced By] – Jon Balke, Manfred Eicher
Saxophone [Saxophones], Flute – Morten Halle
Trumpet – Arve Henriksen
Trumpet, Vocals [Vocal] – Per Jørgensen
Violoncello – Svante Henryson

JON BALKE & MAGNETIC NORTH ORCHESTRA - Diverted Travels (2004) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    Machinery    4:47
Jon Balke
2    Nutating    4:01
Jon Balke
3    Sink    1:12
Jon Balke
4    Columns    3:33
Jon Balke
5    Deep    1:33
Jon Balke
6    In Patches    5:58
Jon Balke
7    Ondular    2:44
Jon Balke
8    Downslope    5:01
Jon Balke
9    Rivers    3:33
Jon Balke
10    Climb    4:06
Jon Balke
11    Inside    0:53
Jon Balke
12    And On    6:48
Jon Balke
13    The Drive    4:31
Ingar Zach
14    Falling    2:38
Jon Balke
Credits :
Flute [Bass Flute], Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Fredrik Lundin
Percussion – Helge Andreas Norbakken, Ingar Zach
Piano, Keyboards, Photography By – Jon Balke
Producer – Jon Balke, Manfred Eicher
Trumpet, Vocals – Per Jørgensen
Violin – Bjarte Eike, Peter Spissky
Violin [Bass Violin] – Thomas Pitt

JON BALKE - Book of Velocities (2007) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Simply put, there are no solo piano recordings like this one. Jon Balke, director of the Magnetic North Orchestra and Oslo 13, has never recorded a solo piano set before. It's quite remarkable when one thinks of his facility as both a composer and an improviser, and as a musician who can rely on the piano's original tenets as a percussion instrument quite strikingly -- as he does as a member of the group Batagraf. Yet nothing could have prepared the listener for this gorgeous set of unedited, unprocessed, and undubbed piano pieces. Balke got the idea for this recording from his interest in photography. He'd take pictures from a moving car while listening to music and driving -- without looking through the camera or at what he was photographing. He'd then take different pictures with his camera adjusted for better results. This work doesn't sound that wild, but involves a sense of planning (composition), action (development), reaction (invention), and moving forward (improvisation). The structure of this album consists of 18 pieces, divided into four chapters and a pair of epilogues. An idea would be sketched live, then developed upon once or twice or even three times, and then left for another -- a book perhaps, made up of episodes but not necessarily a narrative. Balke astonishes the listener with his sense of using the entire instrument -- in one piece he rubs the strings inside with one hand while playing a melody with the other. One or two lines are uttered in a melodic or harmonic frame and "further" narrated until the process exhausts itself or a new idea emerges. It is a restrained idea of working, but it is not restricted. It is a refining process from which something new always emerges. It is the story that begins but consistently moves and shifts, quickly since none of these pieces is more than 4:46 in length, with some as short as 56 seconds. Movement and the degree of force in creating sounds become structural ways of working by velocity. This is not mere academic playing, either. It is very minimal, but also very malleable; change is the order of the proceeding, so a quiet form of delight is given to the listener as the process of discovery unfolds over and over again. Highly recommended.
(This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa')
Chapter I    
1    Giada    3:34
2    Scintilla    0:57
3    Spread    4:26
4    Castello    3:48
5    Resilience    3:34
Chapter II    
6    Single Line    2:34
7    Nyl    3:35
8    Double Line    3:09
Chapter III    
9    Obsidian    3:26
10    Sunday Shapes    3:19
11    Gum Bounce    2:00
12    Finger Bass    3:23
13    Contrivance    2:45
Chapter IV    
14    Drape Hanger    3:15
15    Septima Llegada    2:03
16    Reel Set    1:25
17    Scrim Stand    3:17
Epilogue    
18    Sonance    4:46
19    Nefriit    2:58
Credits :
Piano – Jon Balke
Producer – Manfred Eicher

JON BALKE - Warp (2016) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Jon Balke's musical life has been lived on the wide-open fringe of expression. He has utilized conventional Western European and Asian folk traditions, electronics, classical, jazz and avant-garde techniques, and various spoken, sung, and percussive languages. Given all of his previous experimentation, Warp is one of the most mysterious dates in his career. The vast majority of the 16 pieces here are miniatures, only one is over five minutes. Balke plays solo piano throughout, and accompanies himself by utilizing field recordings and other electronic sounds placed carefully in the backdrops and margins. It would seem this work is one piece initially -- you have to look at the inside sleeve to see the individual titles; but instead, this is a work of carefully sequenced individual works that present a labyrinth. "Heliolatry" opens in the piano's lower middle register with dark, brooding notes. A fluttery static and the scraping of strings inside the instrument lend a backdrop to a thematic flurry of notes and scales as they dialogue with one another. Static and what sounds like an organ pair with the wordless vocals of Wenche Losnegaard in "On and On," which ends with an open-ended question. "Bolide" possesses a hymn-like, folk song quality, while sparse processional chordal statements make up its corpus on either side of middle C. The all-too-brief "Shibboleth" employs somewhat angular improvisation, with field-recorded percussive sounds lining the frame. Balke actually slips into Lennie Tristano-esque scalar runs and then moves off center in a more speculative -- and dissonant -- direction. The indecipherable "announcement reading" of Balke's daughter Ellinor provides a sound sculpture for his plucked bass strings to bridge just the hint of a melody. It's followed by the genuinely haunting "Slow Spin," a jazz improvisation that is framed ever so faintly with droning electronic sounds. While "Kantor" asserts itself as a lithe, elliptical piano interlude, it is transformed by a mesh of field-recorded sounds and the voice of Mattis Myrland into a gorgeous art song. The album closes with a variation on "Heliolatry," then forgoes the inner instrument scraping for a more assertive dialogue with a synth imitating an organ. Balke's piano is assertive, creating a leitmotif from the more spectral dark notes in the first version. Warp is curious. Its quark strangeness may prove a tad unsettling early on, but settles into a quietly compelling invitation for the listener. The entire experience offers a different series of questions, answers, and conclusions each time it is encountered. The language Balke speaks is that of the piano as it encounters the inner resonances of its physical body, as well as those of the outer, indefinable tongues of sound itself.  
(This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa')
Tracklist :
1    Heliolatry    3:19
2    This Is The Movie    5:18
3    Bucolic    4:05
4    On And On    4:56
5    Bolide    4:56
6    Amarinthine    4:51
7    Shibboleth    2:47
8    Mute    1:15
9    Slow Spin    4:22
10    Boodle    2:25
11    Dragoman    3:41
12    Kantor    4:04
13    Geminate    0:52
14    Telesthesia    1:28
15    Geminate Var.    1:58
16    Heliolatry Var.    3:51
Credits :
Composed, Music, Photography [Cover Photo], Piano, Sounds [Sound Images], Field Recording [Field Recordings] – Jon Balke
Producer [Produced By] – Jon Balke, Manfred Eicher
Vocals – Mattis Myrland, Wenche Losnegaard

JON BALKE | BATAGRAF - Say and Play (2011) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    Baka #65    1:54
2    Everyday Music    5:33
3    Riddle #1    3:33
4    Calmly    4:39
5    Vjup    0:51
6    Tonk    4:59
7    The Wind Calmer    4:30
8    Riddle #2    3:31
9    Azulito    5:03
10    Hundred-Handed    4:48
11    One Change    2:54
12    Winds    3:24
13    GMBH    0:46
Credits :
Drums – Erland Dahlen
Executive-Producer – Manfred Eicher
Music By – Helge A. Norbakken (pistas: 13), Jon Balke (pistas: 1 to 12)
Percussion [Sabar], Percussion [Gorong], Djembe, Talking Drum, Shekere, Percussion – Helge Andreas Norbakken
Piano, Keyboards, Electronics, Percussion [Tungoné], Goblet Drum [Darbouka], Percussion, Producer, Photography By [Cover Photo] – Jon Balke
Read By [Poetry Reading], Lyrics By [Poems By] – Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen
Vocals – Emilie Stoesen Christensen