Louis Sclavis Quartet: Silk and Salt Melodies

After all this time, I just feel like posting quickly today on this wonderfully diverse recording from ECM, "Silk and Salt Melodies"out tomorrow September 30th. Louis Sclavis on clarinet and bass clarinet, Gilles Coronado on guitar, Benjamin Moussay on piano and keyboards, and Keyvan Chemirani on percussion play nine pieces of beautifully arranged and integrated melodies which build in intensity as the recording proceeds through them. After an opening set of four moderate tempo pieces, the "Dance of the Horses"  steps up the tempo with increasing passion, culminating in a fevered piano part by Chemirani over pulsating hand drums. Sclavis follows with some beautiful, full bodied clarinet play on a mischievous "Amando's Rhumba", with lots of pauses, tempo changes, and questions buried among the lines. The intensity moves up a notch with "Cortege" and "Dust and Dogs", with a distinctly eastern flair provided by the sinuous clarinet and percussion parts. Lots of storytelling in these songs, lots of mystery and adventure as the instruments play off of each other with jumps and pauses and tempo shifts.  Outstanding music.