CD ECM Records David Darling: Cycles

1982
David Darling - violoncel, violoncel electric
Collin Walcott - sitar, tabla, percutie
Steve Kuhn - pian
Jan Garbarek - saxofon sopran si tenor
Arild Andersen - contrabas
Oscar Castro-Neves - chitara

ecmreviews.com:
"As it stands, Cycles is a bubble of possibility that only expands with every listen. In its opening strains, we kneel atop a cliff of unraveling. Darling’s needlepoint brings light to fullest dark, breathing through Walcott’s tabla and Garbarek’s shawm-like expectorations.

Those fluid horsehairs sing like portals, beginning and ending in the same draw. Harmonies linger as afterthoughts of infinite space. From nebulae to star and back to billowing gauze, the music flows into rivers of light—quiet, intense, forgiving. Grooves flicker into life, voices settle into afterlife. Cello and sitar sing into one another, while Kuhn’s wafting fragrances remind us of what it felt like to be on Earth.

Were I to single out one track, however, from this multivalent exhalation, it would have to be “Fly,” a brooding intertwining of cello and saxophone that is a Mt. Everest in the ECM landscape. Garbarek emits some of his most satoric playing here, floating ever skyward. He is a lantern hung in the clouds, a riddle whose denouement only reveals further mystery."