Anders Jormin's Swedish-Japanese project returns the highly distinctive voice and fiddle of Lena Willemark to ECM (her first appearance on the label in more than a decade), and introduces koto player Karin Nakagawa.

In their collaborative music the Japanese classical tradition and the stark, archaic sounds of the koto, allied to Jormin's muscular bass improvisations, form a unique context for Lena's sung poems, delivered in her native Älvdals-dialect. Traditions and non-idiomatic improvising are cross-referenced, and new paths are opened up. This all adds up to an unusual and striking album of deep-rooted contemporary music.

Anders Jormin was born in Jönköping, Sweden, in 1957. He studied at the Music Academy of Göteborg where he returns regularly to teach double bass and improvisation. He holds professorships from both the Göteborg Academy and Helsinki's Sibelius Academy, and is the first contemporary improviser elected to the Swedish Royal Academy of Music. His distinguished contributions to ECM recordings with Charles Lloyd, Don Cherry, Tomasz Stanko, Marilyn Mazur, Mark Feldman, Sinikka Langeland and Jon Balke have received critical praise internationally. Alongside his compositions for jazz groups (many of which have been played by the Bobo Stenson Trio), Anders has a growing reputation as a composer of works for chamber ensembles and mixed jazz and classical forces.

Personnel: Lena Willemark (voice, fiddle and viola), Anders Jormin (double bass), Karin Nakagawa (25-string koto)