Jan Garbarek In Praise of Dreams

"In Praise of Dreams" – Jan Garbarek’s first new album in six years – features two musicians with whom the great Norwegian saxophonist shares some history – American-Armenian violist Kim Kashkashian and African-French drummer Manu Katché. Garbarek, Kashkashian and Katché span a lot of idioms between them, but the music sings with a focussed sense of purpose, in the context that Jan has shaped for it. If dreams are movies for the mind, the album is aptly titled – its atmospheres are evocative and decidedly ‘filmic’.
"Beautifully recorded, beautifully played, wrenching, emotional – words can’t quite do this music justice. Settling down to listen to it, you quickly lose sense of the tracklist and are immersed in another world – as if a film is being projected inside your head. Beautifully phrased melodies and antiphony, with the plaintive viola of US-Armenian Kim Kashkashian, skirt into almost Celtic lines and turn your skin to goose flesh. And with rhythms loops, electronic moments and the subtle additions of African-French percussionist Manu Katché, Garbarek creates a score, a sound-world that opens up corners of your heart and soul." - Mark Espiner, Songlines
"From the very first track ... the saxophonist serves notice that this is going to be a very different album to anything he has done before. The haunting electronically generated sounds seem to hang in the air like an early morning mist and are penetrated, like the early morning sun, by the sharp, almost crystalline definition of Garbarek’s saxophone, and, on subsequent tracks by Kashkashian on viola. The multiplicities of meaning conjured between them on pieces like “Knot in Time And place” or “Scene from Afar” take this album to a place where no Garbarek album has gone before. … A major statement, possibly among his finest, by a major artist." - Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise
"As might be expected from the Norwegian saxophonist’s first solo release in six years, this is a crafted album full of intricately worked tunes. Garbarek employs subtle elements of what might be termed the higher electronica, creating elegantly distressed patterns of percussion to blow against. The masterstroke lies in his choice of collaborators: the classical soloist Kim Kashkashian and drummer Manu Katché, whose indeterminate accents make the machine-made pulses come alive. No surprises then, just real music which deepens with every hearing." - Phil Johnson, Independent on Sunday
"The great Norwegian saxophonist, arguably the most influential non-American star in jazz, hasn’t abandoned his biggest asset, the emotive sound for which the term „plangent“ might have been invented. Beauty remains the name of his game, so unobtrusive samples and synthesizer programmes echo the lyricism of his tenor and soprano saxophone work. Sensitively supported by Afro-French percussionist Manu Katché and US-Armenian viola player Kim Kashkashian, he produces another feast of folk-like themes and graceful variations." - Jack Massarik, Evening Standard
"Jan Garbarek’s first new disc for six years stood out for its gorgeous melody, clarity of performance and innovative duets with the fabulous viola player Kim Kashkashian. The duo magic up some wonderfully expansive, evocative soundscapes. A meditative album that reveals itself to be full of subtle riches." - Peter Culshaw, Daily Telegraph
"Jan Garbarek has always been more than just a saxophonist. A special aura surrounds this ascetic musician with the mostly sad, but always sparkling-suggestive tones ... The consistency with which Garbarek lives out dark moods is relentless. Night is constantly reigning in the eleven musical meditations. Atmospheres grow with a gloomy pull, into which you can fall wonderfully: the night is not dead, it hides secrets and dreams that always keep something lovely. ...In Praise of Dreams is a dialogue between the saxophonist Garbarek and the programmer Garbarek. The result is a chamber-musical, silent studio album, which is more concentrated and more strictly worked than previous recordings of the Norwegian. The grooves are extremely discreet. Garbarek does not conjure up sticky sauces from the synthesizer, but transparent sound threads and swabs. All the more, Garbarek's saxophone tones come into their own over the matt shimmering background: sometimes they are small primal screams, then again like lines hewn out of stone. Dramatic-rough and supple combine: a real Garbarek." - Christoph Merki, Tages-Anzeiger
"The praise of dreams begins with a veritable wake-up call. ... The listener can only really celebrate when this opening piece has faded away and Garbarek sings the anthem "In praise of dreams" with the violist Kim Kashkashian, which can hardly be surpassed in luxuriant beauty and fascinating power. Over a pumping beat, Garbarek and Kashkashian circle around each other, taste the sonorities of their instruments and find a wonderful harmony of saxophone and viola. Garbarek, Kashkashian and Katché hold the basic tone of this masterpiece, which is permeated by a deep seriousness and at the same time discreetly playful, over the rest of the album. Caution and openness characterize the dialogues and direct the abundance of ideas into clear, amazingly easy-to-understand structures. ... In this constellation, Garbarek opens doors into truly unheard sound spaces, located somewhere between jazz, folk and chamber music and yet barely tangible with words." - Matthias Inhoffen, Stereoplay
"Jan Garbarek remains true to himself here too: his floating saxophone sounds and dreamy compositions also characterize this CD, which he recorded together with the Armenian violist Kim Kashkashian and African-French percussionist Manu Katché. Fantastically beautiful, timelessly meditative, sensually calm." - Reinmar Wagner, Music & Theatre
"Maybe you should start with the last track while listening to this dreamlike Garbarek album; for four and a half minutes, Garbarek's saxophone and Kim Kashkashian's viola float side by side in a simple, six-note melody- and together, dance a poignant pas des deux, merge, dissolve, approach, over and over again. ... In Kim Kashkashian, Garbarek has found a soul mate who not only shares his aesthetic of the elegiac, but also embodies it with her instrument. ... And Manu Katché? drummer ... the somewhat thankless task of the supplementary third party falls to the lot. His dark drum sounds provide the necessary background for the flights of the saxophone and viola. In addition to Garbarek's haunting compositions, it is this mixture of timbres that makes Praise of Dreams a stunning listening experience." - Heribert Ickerott, Jazz Podium
"A melodic opulence that will bristle the hairs of those who do not like to sing in the shower, but which will satisfy those who consider that singing, even if it is haunting or suggested, whispered or gushed at the top of their lungs, is the flesh of all music. At Garbarek, as at Keith Jarrett or Albert Ayler, he does not bother with modesty. No veils, just enjoyment. The deliberate stripping of the formula chosen by the saxophonist (and hack) – the viola violin of Kim Kashkashian and the drumming of Manu Katché – further amplifies the bias of clear line. And there is, in this "dressing" of the melodies, a minimalist approach to the timbres which is a fascinating work of goldsmith. Light years away from convulsive beauties, but in the heart of a sensuality more assumed than ever by the saxophonist. All tension evacuated, the music rises in volutes in a dreamlike, almost hypnotic "time". Under its "easy" appearances, one of Jan Garbarek's most radical records: he had never pushed the plug so far on the path of "less is more"." - Alex Dutilh, Jazz Musician

• 180g Vinyl
• Recorded at Blue Jay Recording Studio, Carlisle, MA, March and June 2003
• Gatefold jacket
• Made in Germany

• Jan Garbarek, tenor and soprano sax and/or synthesizers, samplers, percussion
• Kim Kashkashian, viola
• Manu Katché, drums