Andreas Georgiou - Asate (2003)

I've noted Andreas Georgiou's CD background here, here, and here, so this time I'll jump straight into the virtues of this disc, which ushers back Eberhard Weber and inducts Airto Moreira and Savina Yiannatou, also luminaries in the chamber jazz / ECM worlds (Moreira possessing an even longer history, a years-past alum of the illustrious CTI label and a very in-demand percussionist). The disc is of a piece with everything else Georgiou has done, and not a single cut in any of his many releases veers one inch from the highest standards.
Where Paul McCandless appeared with his sax on Jua Ni Juu, Harris Lamprakis plays the caval, a flute, here on two cuts redoubling very strong Grecian, Mediterranean, and even Arabic airs. Yiannatou dubs in her angelic melismas, and Moreira is as lush and ingenious as he's ever been. Georgiou has a way of bringing that out even in already hallowed stalwarts, his compositions and shimmering guitar playing re-mounting a drive to perfection that has been sadly decaying in much of the music world in toto in the last couple decades.
Relying mainly on his beloved 15- and 16-string axes, he also pulls in a standard classical guitar and plies it in several spots. While I've referred to the many more other well-known moderns he sits well with, I should also mention that his inventions are kindred to Michael Hedges' ground-breaking work and sit beautifully with the CandyRat label boys, lads and gents who are breaking the ground for the guitar's next milieu. Ah, but there's one more, a long-forgotten ace: Alain Markusfeld, who issued only a few European LPs and, if memory serves correctly, sat in here and there and then disappeared after fusing the old and new in ways that were then (late 70s & early 80s) not widely accepted. The guy was an unorthodox virtuoso and so is Georgiou.
Weber gets some great solos, Georgiou plays like a demon, and Yiannatou is extremely pleasant, but Moreira almost steals the show. His work in Rainforest is incredible but the rest of the showcase spots him just as impressively. The guitarist couldn't have chosen a more suitable accompanist, and one can only hope that future works will bring Airto back again.