It starts with gently edgy a cappella vocal from the Finnish singer Sanna Kurki-Suonio accompanied by her daughter Erika Hammarberg, and the bass voice of Ian Blake. Then the zithers move in, with Andrew Cronshaw’s 74-string electrified instrument providing chiming backing and throbbing rhythmic effects, matched against the Finnish kantele played by Kurki-Suonio and Hammarberg. And then the plaintive, mournful sound of Tigran Aleksanyan’s duduk, an oboe-like instrument traditionally played by shepherds in Armenia. The melody is Scottish Gaelic, the lyrics are in Finnish and the result is a compelling, unexpected fusion of European and Middle Eastern styles.
All this has brought SANS cult success in Europe, where this album shot to the top of the world music charts upon its release last week. The musicians were originally brought together by Cronshaw seven years ago, to play on his album The Unbroken Surface of Snow, and went on to record a live set that demonstrated their quietly intense improvised playing. Kulku, the first SANS studio recording, displays a different approach, with vocals now dominant on often sad-edged songs that range from the brooding Tuuditelle Tuuli, where the duduk is matched against Blake’s reed work (he plays clarinet and saxophone) to the harmony vocals on the poignant Kazvatti, a lament for a bride unwillingly married to an alcoholic husband, which is backed by gently chiming zither. There are fewer instrumental pieces than expected, but the two that are included show the empathy between the musicians, and include the atmospheric The Edge of Autumn, in which a haunting duduk melody is matched against a wash of zithers. A subtle, exquisite set.
This month’s other picks
Christoph H Müller and Eduardo Makaroff from Gotan Project are still beefing up tango with programming and guitars, and on their entertaining, self-titled debut as the Plaza Francia Orchestra they are joined by strings, piano and three female singers, thankfully still including the sultry and emotional Catherine Ringer. From Valencia comes Ahlam, the debut from NES, an inventive, versatile trio in which Nesrine Belmokh is joined by a French cellist and flamenco percussionist, and switches effortlessly from Arab-Andalusian styles to blues and chanson. And from Zimbabwe, there is Kasahwa: Early Singles, by Stella Chiweshe. Mostly recorded in the Seventies but never released outside Africa, it’s a reminder of why John Peel rightly championed this virtuoso “queen of the mbira (thumb piano)”.
