CD ECM Records Frode Haltli: Passing Images

2007

Frode Haltli - acordeon
Arve Henriksen - trompeta
Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje - voce
Garth Knox - viola

Frode Haltli, acknowledged as one of the most outstanding accordion soloists in contemporary music, is also an exceptional improviser and an authority on folk music. His second ECM recording under his own name brings all of these aspects of his musical character together. Repertoire includes a psalm from the western fjords, a lyrical waltz from Haltli‘s home village near the Swedish border, a Roma traveller tune that suggests Albert Ayler‘s sound-world... With a supporting cast including Irish-Scottish classical viola player Garth Knox (ex-Arditti Quartet) as well as Norwegian partners composer/singer Maja Ratkje and trumpeter Arve Henriksen, Haltli offers a radical new look at music from traditional sources.

On Passing Images, his second solo release, Haltli recalls traditional music from his homeland – a psalm from the western fjords, a waltz from the village where he grew up close to the Swedish border, a song of Romany travellers – and creates something fresh and singular. This is gentle and plaintive music mostly, carefully paced, meticulously played and served well by characteristically lucid ECM recording. Haltli is assisted by singer Maja Ratkje, Supersilent trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Garth Knox on viola. They are used sparingly and effectively, supplementing the accordion’s expressive range and heightening mood through harmonic coloration. … Haltli revisits the past without sentimentality and makes it current in music that is both beautiful and exciting.
Julian Cowley, The Wire

Haltli plays accordion, which might whittle down the constituency for this at a stroke. It shouldn’t, because it’s beautiful. Drawing on Norwegian folk themes and with contributions in varying combinations from trumpeter Arve Henriksen, violist Garth Knox and singer Maja Ratkje, he makes something graceful and beautifully shaped, often in dance metres.
Brian Morton, Jazzreview

Inspired by Norwegian folk, Haltli’s slow and beautiful music inhabits it’s own little world somewhere between contemporary classical and folk. But with ethereal trumpeter Arve Henriksen on hand, Haltli’s lilting, plaintive music inhales heavily on the spirit of jazz and Eastern music. Sublimely perfect.
Kerstan Mackness, Time Out