Jon Balke - Warp (2016) [Hi-Res]

'Warp' situates the solo piano of Norway's Jon Balke within a subtle architecture of composed soundscapes, in fluctuating dimensions of space. "As always," says Balke, "the more you explore and discover, the further you want to go, and things are not so simple anymore. It's a very interesting process." And what begins as gently exploratory solo piano gradually acquires an almost hallucinatory aspect. Balke's solo piano was recorded at Oslo's Rainbow Studio, and the sound images were recorded and processed by Balke and Audun Kleive. Additional field recordings by Balke were integrated in the mix of the album at RSI Studio Lugano in September 2015. 'Warp' was produced by Jon Balke and Manfred Eicher. It is the pianist's second solo album for ECM, following the 2007 release 'Book of Velocities', a sequence of aphoristic pieces with affinities to Kurtág and Ligeti, described by Jazzwise as "a fascinating statement that is as beckoning as it is beguiling". Jon Balke has an association with ECM dating back to his teens, when he joined Arild Andersen's group to record 'Clouds In My Head'. Later he was a co-founder of the Masqualero group, with Andersen and Jon Christensen. He has been featured as leader, composer, arranger and keyboardist of Oslo 13, Magnetic North Orchestra and Siwan, and his involvement with percussion was foregrounded in the group Batagraf, which he co-founded with Helge Andreas Norbakken. His most recent ECM album was 'Outland' as a member of the Norwegian trio, Jøkleba.