2004:
Chamber Music
Contact Echoes
Anja Lechner & Vasillis Tsabropoulos's Chants, Hymns and Dances falls into this category for its deep, meditative mood, but fellow ECM Records artist Jan Garbarek took a more electronic approach with synth pads and rhythm loops on In Praise of Dreams. It's a deft CD of hymn-like moods and improvisations between Garbarek and violist Kim Kashkashian, that seemed etched in space.
Jonathan Elias's underrated CD, American River, sought a spiritual strain in post 9-11 days, a deceptively complex album of Coplandesque melodies and elaborate electronic processing. Although cellist Jami Sieber jammed with elephants on Hidden Sky, the core of her music resides in elegiac melodies for multi-tracked and processed cello.
Blow Up Hollywood also fell in this camp. Even though they are predominantly a vocal group singing meditations on death by Steve Messina, they also have an instrumental side, dominated by the cello arrangements of Dave Eygar, heard on their CD, Fake.
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Jami Sieber
Steve Messina of
Blow Up Hollywood
Jonathan Elias
