Trees of Light

Anders Jormin's Swedish-Japanese project returns the highly distinctive voice and fiddle of Lena Willemark, and introduces koto player Karin Nakagawa. In their collaborative music the Japanese classical tradition and the stark, archaic sounds of the koto, allied to Jormin's muscular bass improvisations, form a unique context for Lena's sung poems, delivered in her native Älvdals-dialect. Traditions and non-idiomatic improvising are cross-referenced, and new paths are opened up. This all adds up to an unusual and striking album of deep-rooted contemporary music.