MARTA SOFIA HONER Vinilo y CD

Review: Chicago's International Anthem serve up another high-grade contemporary jazz album, this time Recordings from the Aland Islands. It is the result of a journey to said islands in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland that Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia made in 2017. As they learned about the land, the concept for this record was devised. It opens with hazy, dream-like sounds and takes in plenty pastoral sounds that easily bring to mind images of the romantic woodlands, moss covered boulders and forest floors of the islands.

Review: This is a limited edition 'silent' grey vinyl version of Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu, and Marta Sofia Honer's The Closest Thing to Silence. The album is one that defies conventions and offers ethereal compositions and intricate soundscapes that immerse listeners in contemplation. Kalma's mastery of wind instruments, Chiu's electronic experimentation, and Honer's emotive vocals seamlessly blend, creating a serene tapestry of sound. Each track unfolds like a meditative journey, guiding listeners through evocative landscapes of sound. This collaborative effort highlights the beauty of stillness, inviting introspection and appreciation for the artistry that emerges from such moments. This, then, is a testament to the transformative power of collaborative creativity.

Review: Back in the summer of 2022, BBC Radio 3 asked fourth world legend and all-round avant-garde musical hero Ariel Kalma to pick artists he'd never met to collaborate with. He chose Jeremiah Chu and Marta Sofia Honer. Following the radio broadcast in the autumn of '22, the trio continued making music together and this is the result: a brilliant, impossible-to-pigeonhole affair that combines snatches of improvised performances from each musician with elements of recordings Kalma made in the 1970s, speech samples, droning tones, ambient electronics and much more besides. It's not jazz, ambient, fourth world or abstract electronica, but something that sits in the fuzzy gaps in between. More importantly, it's sonically superb - a coherent and inspired piece of work that gets the most out of its principle cast of characters.