Magnus Granberg - How Deep Is the Ocean, How High Is the Sky? (2015) Lossless

"The Swede Magnus Granberg has rapidly become a key member of the Another Timbre family, this being his fifth album on the label in under four years, with four of those being his own compositions. Those familiar with Granberg's past AT releases will be delighted to hear that How Deep is the Ocean, How High is the Sky? follows the familiar pattern of the others. As before, it employs material derived from another song-in this instance, Irving Berlin's "How Deep is the Ocean"-but there are few, if any, traces of the original in evidence. Instead, the piece establishes a pleasantly melancholy mood that typifies Granberg compositions.

How Deep is the Ocean, How High is the Sky differs from past Granberg releases in the instrumentation used to perform it. As before, Granberg himself leads a large ensemble, a ten-piece this time with him playing prepared piano rather than clarinet. Again the ensemble includes electronics, objects and synthesiser alongside acoustic instruments, with the Swiss duo Diatribes-d'incise and Cyril Bondi-here present for the first time. Bizarrely, the ensemble features the distinctive timbres of baroque acoustic instruments such as spinet, viola da gamba, baroque violin and chitarrone plus bass recorders. Consequently, the resulting ensemble is an amalgam of the 18th and 21st centuries, one that sounds as if it might not work but actually succeeds well.
Granberg's composition is not rigidly scored but allows the players license to play the specified music when they see fit, within a rough temporal framework. This gives it a loose, relaxed feel that is so typical of Granberg's work it is immediately recognisable as his. Yet another winner from Granberg."~ John Eyles, All About Jazz.

Magnus Granberg - prepared piano, composition
Cyril Bondi - objects, percussion
d’incise - objects, electronics
Teresa Hackel - bass recorder
Wolfgang Hillemann - chitarrone
Anna Lindal - baroque violin
Hans Jürg Meier - bass recorder
Anna-Kaisa Meklin - viola da gamba
Eric Ruffing - analogue synthesiser
Christoph Schiller - spinet, objects