My review of Anja Lechner & François Couturier's Moderato cantabile, today at All About Jazz.
ECM Records has long divided its discography in two: the regular series, representing music of a more improvisational bent; and its New Series, featuring largely classical music ranging from the contemporary to the archaic, but more truly defined in its through- composed nature. Still, the line between the two has, however, often been a porous one, where artists perhaps most associated with one side of the fence are able to make the occasional excursion to the other side. Perhaps the artist most representative of this ability to work in both structured and extemporaneous contexts is cellist Anja Lechner. Even her earliest appearance with Rosamunde Quartett—on Dino Saluzzi's Kultrum (ECM New Series, 1998)—represented the beginning of a relationship with the renowned Argentinean bandoneonist that would lead to programs where the line between form and freedom was even less distinct, such as the superb duo recording Ojos Negros (ECM, 2007), in which overt improvisation was replaced by the more interpretive nature of phrasal nuance, harmony, dynamics and rhythmic inflection.
Since then, Lechner has regular walked both sides of the fence—or, perhaps more accurately, dismantled the fence entirely, going wherever her muse takes her without worrying about such irrelevant concerns as "is it jazz?" or "is it classical?" The cellist has, based on her discography, a clear fondness for collaborations with pianists, as recordings like Ketil Bjornstad's La Notte (ECM, 2013), Misha Alperin's Her First Dance (ECM, 2008) or Lechner's trio recording with Vassilis Tsabropoulos and percussionist U.T. Gandhi, Melos (2008), amply demonstrate. Even more longstanding is her relationship with Francois Couturier, collaborating with the French pianist in his acclaimed Tarkovsky Quartet last heard on Tarkovsky Quartet (ECM, 2011), the third in a triptych tribute to the great filmmaker that began with Nostalghia—Song for Tarkovsky (ECM, 2006).
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