Watersong

サヴィーナ・ヤナトゥの5枚目のECMアルバム。

祝福と呪いとしての水。生命を維持する源であり、嵐の要素的な力における死の脅威でもある、様々な表情を見せる「水」をテーマにしている。シェイクスピアの『テンペスト』に登場する精霊アリエルの歌「フル・ファゾム・ファイブ」は、ギリシャのヴォーカリスト、ヤナトゥとプリマヴェーラ・エン・サロニコのバンドにインスピレーションを与える出発点となった。サヴィーナとラミアが一緒に歌うと、20年以上前のヤナトゥの『テラ・ノストラ』ですでに明らかだったように、特別な魔法がかかる。今回のレコーディングでは、ベディウイが砂漠の世界を体現しており、アラビア語とベドウィンの方言が地中海沿岸のヨーロッパやその他の地域の言語と交差している。歌は多くの羅針盤と歴史的エポックから生まれている。エジプトの伝統的な曲から北マケドニアの曲へ。アラブの王子アブ・フィラス・アル・ハムダーニーによる10世紀の詩のセッティングは、南イタリアの哀歌とギリシャのキャロルの間に位置する。アイルランドのゲール語の歌は、コルシカの曲やアフリカ系アメリカ人のスピリチュアルな「Wade In The Water」をプリマヴェーラ・エン・サロニコが独自にアレンジした曲の前にある。サヴィーナとその友人たちは、多文化的な音楽的情熱と大胆なスタイルの並置によって、伝統と伝統の間のつながりをも照らし出している。
＜パーソネル＞Savina Yannatou (voice) Lamia Bedioui (voice) Primavera en Salonico:Kostas Vomvolos (qanun, accordion) Harris Lambrakis (nay)
Kyriakos Gouventas (violin) Yannis Alexandris (oud) Michalis Siganidis (double bass) Dine Doneff (perc)

After 44 previous albums, Greek vocalist Savina Yannatou has interpreted songs and styles from many ancient traditions in the 21st century. During her career, shes become one of the worlds great vocal improvisers. Watersong, her fifth album on ECM, reunites her with longtime collaborators Primavera en Salonico and Greece-based Tunisian singer and storyteller Lamia Bedioui, who also appeared on 2008s Terra Nostra and sings with Jon Balkes Siwan. This 14-song cycle offers a global tour of songs about waters blessings and curses. The album commences in Greece with the traditional "The Song of Klidonis," a ballad of desire with ney flute and the zither-like quanun. "Naanaa Algenina (Green Mint)/Ivana," a traditional medley from Aswan, Egypt arranged by Bedioui, is offered in duet. It relays a womans erotic desire for her beloved as well as her pained sense of betrayal by him. During its final third, it is transformed by group improvisation; both women engage in percussive glossolalia. "Ai Giorkis" (St. George), a traditional Cyprian song, is a child murder ballad delivered like a progressive pop song. "A los Banos del Amor (At the Baths of Love)" is a 16th century Spanish lament offering a bereft lovers account of her solitude at the baths of love and the baths of sorrow. Another Greek tune, "Perperouna," is an agricultural planting song and prayer for rain that evolves into a group improvisation as Primavera en Salonico percussionist Dine Doneff drives the entire band on a mbira. On the albums latter half we are treated to a truly modernist read of the sacred Greek carol "Kalanta of the Theophany" with searing group improvisation featuring a sweeping accordion, layered percussion, ney, bass, and violin. "Mawal (To the Mourning Dove I Said)" is a tenth century Arabic poem performed as avant-garde contemporary prayer with clattering percussion and Yannatous and Bediouis spoken word delivery in near whispers and full-on wails. Theres also a distinctly 21st century reading of version of 17th century composer Robert Johnsons "Full Fathom Five," from William Shakespeares The Tempest. Delivered with the sparsest of accompaniment, Yannatou assumes the identity of Ariel as she sings of her father and the sea to Prince Ferdinand. The album closes with another medley, juxtaposing the American spiritual "Wade in the Water" with the Egyptian song "Alla Musau (God of Moses)." Singing in Arabic, Greek, and English -- the women juxtapose the languages in the intro before the old spiritual claims the fore atop an accordion-led, jazz-blues chart with a walking bassline. Yannatou begins engaging in scat improvisation with Kostas Vomvolos accordion. Bedioui rejoins, moaning through the Egyptian song, opening it up into a frenetic dance before they all collide in improvisational singing before whispering into silence. The pairing of these two singers on Watersong, when combined with Bediouis and Primavera en Salonicos canny accompaniment and improvisation, offers a casebook in marrying historic musical traditions to modernist arrangement and improv; it preserves tradition even while expanding its reach into a world that has almost forgotten it. ~ Thom Jurek