Kenneth Dahl Knudsen - Atlas (2022)

With his new sextet, Knudsen has allied himself with a number of fantastic musicians rooted in different traditions. The oud virtuoso Wassim Mukdad is rounded by classical Syrian music, while duduk player Ertan Tekin is a compelling conveyor of traditional Armenian and Kurdish music and culture. Israeli jazz pianist Eyal Lovett has a penchant for Bach's fugues and manages to build architectural soundscapes of Jerusalem's bustling, chaotically scented streets with his playing. Further north we find Ukrainian folk singer Ganna Gryniva, who draws Eastern European folklore into a modern electronic universe with particular ferocity. The ensemble is completed by Romanian viola player Marius Ungureanu - a true force of nature who has been both a Transylvanian folk musician and a soloist in major European symphony orchestras.

The music for ATLAS has been newly composed in dialogue with the musicians of the ensemble - with the aim of both allowing the rich musical traditions to be expressed and at the same time challenging the boundaries of tradition and creating new directions in the borderland between modern and ancient, Middle Eastern and European, composed and improvised.

You can expect music that explores, with soul and nerve, both the traditional roots of music, the precision of compositional music and the experimental and improvisational detours of jazz. Either way, the stage is set for a beautiful, wild, poetic and wistful experience.