Aaron Parks - Arborescence (2013)

Mentioned this album when recounting the chance meeting of Aaron Parks and Yeahwon Shin that led to Lua Ya, so about time I posted it.  Arborescence was the second appearance on ECM (Lua Ya came out a few months before it) for Parks, born 1983 in Seattle, and his first album of solo piano.  It's an impressionistic, highly evocative set of improvisation-composition pianism, that almost seems to unfold like a forest-reverie concept album.  The album title feeds down into the track titles that start with Asleep In The Forest, Towards Awakening and so on, with later tracks named Squirrels, Branches and River Ways.

Parks' style occasionally bringing Keith Jarrett to mind in the way that some of the initially hesitant sounding tracks unfold, and spin off from jazz, blues and Satie-era classical music.  Arborescence is a gorgeous collection of pieces that are endlessly enjoyable, and mostly mellow and reflective.  The most the temperature gets raised is in the rolling arpeggios of In Pursuit, and in the brief, jittery movements of Squirrels.  Beautiful stuff.

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pw: sgtg

Yeahwon Shin - Lua Ya (2013)

A gorgeous little whisper of an album, so light and soft it's barely there.  Lua Ya is the second album by Korean singer Yeahwon Shin, who started out with a love of Brazilian music and based her debut around Latin jazz.  This appearance on ECM grew spontaneously out of Shin visiting Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA, where pianist Aaron Parks was was recording what would become his solo piano album Arborescence.  Shin and Parks developed an instant rapport, and recorded in the same venue together a few months later in May 2012, adding accordionist Rob Curto (who'd already worked with Shin).

The eleven feather-light miniatures (plus two alternate takes) that make up Lua Ya clock in at just over 40 minutes in total.  Curto's accordian is used judiciously, with half of the album just spare voice and piano duets.  Shin reached back to her early childhood for inspiration, basing a lot of the material around Korean lullabies, and imbuing them with her jazz influences.  The result is pure meditative bliss, perfect for late-night relaxation.

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