Catalogue # ECM2227

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ABC Classic FM: CD of the Week 9th July\n2012

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Hirundo Maris is Latin for “sea swallow” and, like that bird’s\nnomadic flight, singer and harpist Arianna Savall’s quintet - part\nearly music ensemble, part folk group - drifts on musical currents\nbetween Norway and Catalonia, and adds its own songs, created on\nthe wing. Savall and co-leader Petter Udland Johansen have shaped a\nband with a bright, glistening timbral blend, capped by Arianna’s\nice-clear voice, eminently well-equipped to address songs of the\nnorth and the south.

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Arianna Savall’s leader debut for ECM New Series follows her\ndistinguished contributions to Rolf Lislevand’s Nuove musiche\n(4763049) and to Helena Tulve’s Lijnen (4766389) - sensuous early\nmusic on the one hand, bracingly contemporary composition on the\nother.

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In both genres she has proven to be a charismatic singer.\nHirundo Maris, with its very fresh instrumental textures, takes\nanother trajectory.

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Savall and Petter Udland Johansen describe their project as a\njourney linking the Mediterranean and the North Sea. Near the\ncentre of the sound are Arianna’s sparkling harps and the drones of\nJohansen’s Hardanger fiddle; when the colours of the mandolin and\nmore unexpectedly the Dobro (not often heard outside bluegrass\ncontexts) are added, a message is sent about the universality of\nsong as well as of the transatlantic travels of old ballads…\nArianna Savall’s voice is already familiar to many who have\nfollowed the outstanding work of her parents, Catalan viol master\nJordi Savall and singer Montserrat Figueras: until 2008 Arianna\nplayed and sang as a member of her father’s ensembles, including\nHespèrion XXI.

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This album is dedicated to the memory of her mother, who died in\nDecember 2011.

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