ARVE HENRIKSEN - Cartography (2010) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A shifting cast of characters, with live sampling man and album co-producer Jan Bang at the centre, provides a series of soundscapes, an ambient-experimental map of moods, for the uniquely liquid, singing trumpet lines of Arve Henriksen to scale and explore. Some tracks are recorded live in concert, others are studio creations. Singer David Sylvian reads his own poetry on two cuts. ecm
Tracklist :
1    Poverty And Its Opposite 5'36
(Arve Henriksen, Audun Kleive, Jan Bang)
2    Before And Afterlife 6'42
(Jan Bang, David Sylvian, Arve Henriksen)
3    Migration 5'41
(Arve Henriksen, Jan Bang)
4    From Birth 2'44
(Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen, Audun Kleive)
5    Ouija 2'40
(Arve Henriksen, Erik Honoré, Jan Bang)
6    Recording Angel 6'23
(Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen)
7    Assembly 3'55
(Arve Henriksen, Erik Honoré, Jan Bang)
8    Loved One 4'04
(Arve Henriksen, Jan Bang)
9    The Unremarkable Child 2'04
(Arve Henriksen, Jan Bang)
10    Famine's Ghost: Part One - Part Two 4'28
(Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Audun Kleive)
11    Thermal 2'27
(Audun Kleive, Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen)
12    Sorrow And Its Opposite 4'29
(Asbjørn Arntsen)
Credits :
Arve Henriksen - Trumpet, Voice, Field Recording
David Sylvian - Voice, Samples, Programming
Jan Bang - Live Sampling, Samples, Programming, Beats, Bass Line, Dictaphone, Organ Samples, Arrangement
Eivind Aarset - Guitars
Lars Danielsson - Double-Bass
Anna Maria Friman - Voice
Audun Kleive - Percussion, Drums
Erik Honoré - Synthesizer, Samples, Field Recording, Choir Samples
Helge Sunde - String Arrangement, Programming
Arnaud Mercier - Treatments
Trio Mediaeval - Voice Sample
Vérène Andronikof - Vocals
Vytas Sondeckis - Vocal Arrangement
Ståle Storløkken - Synthesizer, Samples    

SINIKKA LANGELAND - The Magical Forest (2016) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

After the largely instrumental The Half-Finished Heaven was issued in 2015, composer, kantele player, and musicologist Sinikka Langeland returns with The Magical Forest, a vocal album. These songs continue her long study of Finnskogen (music from the "forest of the Finns") lore based on fragments and traces she discovered in texts, stories, and songs about the axis mundi or "world tree." For this date she reassembled her full Starflowers quintet (named for her 2006 ECM debut) of trumpeter Arve Henriksen, saxophonist Trygve Seim, bassist Anders Jormin, and percussionist Markku Ounaskari. The group also played on her 2010 offering This Land That Is Not and has backed her in concert settings for a decade. Langeland also enlisted the vocal ensemble Trio Medieval, setting this date apart from virtually everything else she's done while retaining her musical character. The source material digs deep into the sense of place that the world tree represents, a pillar that connects not only earth to sky -- literally and poetically -- but the spiritual in pagan and Christian traditions.

Opener "Puun Loitsu" ("Prayer to the Tree Goddess") is a 19th century rune song offered as a near tribal chant. Langeland's voice and kantele are accompanied only by the bassline until two-thirds of the way through, when Trio Medieval adds a stunning modern polyphony. "Sammas," one of several lyrics attributed to Finnskogen seeress Kaisa Vilhunen, weaves a spectral jazz interlude to a folk song, where the axis mundi is a pillar to heaven made of silver and invokes the Holy Trinity in its introduction. The engagement between the frontline improvisers and rhythm section creates a moody, spectral soundworld for the singers. After a spoken word intro, "Vargman" ("Wolfman") becomes a haunting improvisational interplay between the quintet and Trio Medieval; Langeland's contralto relates a sung narrative above it all. Perhaps the most endearing quality of The Magical Forest, its center, so to speak, is Langeland's kantele playing. Her Finnish table harp bridges jazz improvisation and folk song in "Beaver," and illustrates the reach of Finnskogen from Western Europe to its outlying connections in Siberia and even Japan in "Kamu," and underscores the inseparable relationship in this music between vocalists and instrumentalists on "Pillar to Heaven." Langeland takes chances on The Magical Forest. She allows improvisers a greater degree of freedom. In turn, they extend the reach of her songs from the historical past to the present without erasing their folklore. By involving Trio Medieval, she invites a more fluid yet constant relationship between the physical and metaphysical. Together they illustrate the universal aspects of Finnskogen culture in global symbolism and myth.
>This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa'<
Tracklist
1    Puun Loitsu 5'58
(Sinikka Langeland)
2    Sammas 4'23
(Sinikka Langeland)
3    Jacob’s Dream 7'38
(Sinikka Langeland)
4    The Wolfman 5'05
(Sinikka Langeland)
5    The Magical Forest 5'34
(Sinikka Langeland)
6    Køyri 5'45
(Sinikka Langeland)
7    Kamui 6'09
(Sinikka Langeland)
8    Karsikko 4'34
(Sinikka Langeland)
9    Pillar to Heaven 4'58
(Sinikka Langeland)
Credits :
Sinikka Langeland - Kantele, Vocals
Arve Henriksen - Trumpet
Trygve Seim - Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone
Anders Jormin - Double Bass
Markku Ounaskari - Percussion
Trio Mediaeval   
Anna Maria Friman - Vocals
Berit Opheim - Vocals
Linn Andrea Fuglseth - Vocals  

TRIO MEDIAEVAL – Soir, dit-elle (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The pure voices of Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth, and Torunn Østrem Ossum combine to make Trio Mediaeval a sensation among early music fans. Yet Soir, dit-elle is largely an album of contemporary works written especially for this group by such active composers as Gavin Bryars, Ivan Moody, Andrew Smith, and Oleh Harkavyy. With the exception of the late medieval Missa Alma redemptoris mater by Leonel Power and the twelfth century chant on which it is based, the works are modern imitations in the medieval ecclesiastical style. Despite the trio's beautiful harmonies and the restful calm of its performances, the program is possibly too homogeneous and subdued for any but the most ardent devotees of chant or seekers of music for meditation. That modern composers choose to mimic ancient music -- rather too obviously, with a great profusion of fauxbourdons and Landini cadences -- is a sticking point for those who might wish for something more original and daring. Listeners will find little spice in the selections, which are modal and only mildly dissonant. Moody's Troparion of Kassiani and A Lion's Sleep are the most adventurous in their progressions, though conservative tastes are unlikely to be offended, for the music flows smoothly and the album's sacred ambience is never disrupted. Blair Sanderson