Robyn Schulkowsky/Nils Petter Molvær - Hastening Westward (1995)

Here's something that goes nicely with darker and colder nights.  The starting point for this album was a reworking by American percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky of her 1991 work Hastening Westward At Sundown To Obtain A Better View Of Venus, that evocative title borrowed from Samuel Beckett.

The album contains two suites, with the three-part Pier And Ocean proving a nice overture to lead into the seven-part Hastening Westward.  As told in the liner notes, once Schulkowsky had recorded the three solo percussion sections that appear as tracks 3, 5 and 8, ECM's Manfred Eicher revealed that he just happened to have Nils Petter Molvær around, who could be a perfect partner for Schulkowsky's sound.

The trumpeter was brought in on day two of the sessions, and another in a long line of ECM's instant collaborations quickly took shape.  Molvær did indeed have the innate sensitivity to the overtones of Schulkowsky's drums, bells and bowed gongs that Eicher had anticipated, and the album pays great rewards to repeat listens.  Music for frozen fjords.

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