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A US reaction to Sinikka Langeland’s new recording

The Magical Forest

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.
Thom Jurek, All Music

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