Too often, recordings that attempt to cross-breed musical forms are contrived by record companies who think there’s a fast buck to be made if they can turn opera into dance music, or early music into rock, or rock into classical music. However, there have always been a few whose genuinely multifaceted history allows a natural growing-together of elements from several musical sources. ECM have been releasing records like this for years, without feeling the need to market them as ‘crossover’.
Arriving at a critical stance for such music is another matter. For example, this particular recording is perhaps the best example I’ve yet heard of a music that arises naturally from its mixture of influences – here the South American tango and folk traditions and the European string quartet – but the only way to describe it adequately would be to dismantle the critical traditions of each form and reassemble an entirely new model from the relevant components, much as the music itself does.
Clearly that is impossible here, so I can only offer a few rather facile-sounding pointers. Saluzzi’s eminently listenable but uncompromised compositions draw on his own diverse background in tango, chamber music and avant-garde jazz; the result is evocative of all of these. Excitement, poignancy, virtuosity and sheer emotional strength permeate these eight pieces. Comparisons with Bartok, Ives, Piazzolla, Weill, Skempton and Rudiger Carl come to mind at a considerable push, but the uniqueness of this disc, easily among the best recordings I’ve heard this year, is paramount. Highly recommended.
(https://www.gramophone.co.uk)
