Jon Balke, Cikada String Quartet – Rotor (1998)

Norwegian pianist Jon Balke is an avant-garde-leaning musician with a bent toward mixing various stylistic influences, including contemporary jazz, post-bop, rock, folk, world, and classical. He released his debut album, On and On, in 1991. A year later he made his ECM debut with Nonsentration. A member of the Magnetic North Orchestra, Balke has also released several albums with the ensemble, including Kaynos in 2002 and Diverted Travels in 2004. In 2009, Balke paired up with a similarly inclined group of musicians -- including trumpeter Jon Hassell, violinist Kheir Eddine M'Kachiche, vocalist Amina Alaoui, for 2009's Siwan, which focused deeply on Andalusian culture and the attempt at its eradication during the Inquisition. It won the album of the year prize among the German Record Critics ("Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik"). A year later, he held the piano chair on Lars Möller's 2010 date Trialogue on Imogena (the group also included Morten Lund).