Release Date: 18 March 2013
Label: Ecm Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 602537178964
Genres: Jazz  World Music  
Release Date: 18 March 2013
Label: Ecm Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 602537178964
Genres: Jazz  World Music  
Description
Czech singer/player/composer Iva Bittová has long been one of contemporary music's great originals - and her work has always resisted neat idiomatic definition: as she says herself, "deciding on a name for my style of music is far from over yet". She has contributed to projects in many genres, from jazz to opera, worked with musicians in experimental rock and classical music. This eponymously-titled disc, on which she sings and plays the violin and kalimba (thumb piano) now marks her solo debut for ECM.
Bittová has said: "The violin is a mirror reflecting my dreams and imagination. I believe there are fundamentals to my performance, such as the music's vibration and resonance between violin and my voice." That relationship is beautifully explored on this album - recorded at Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano, and produced by Manfred Eicher - which expresses the essence of Bittová's unique and extraordinary solo work. Her violin-playing is as versatile as her voice can be, by turns, austere, earthy, romantic, a tool for sonic exploration and emotional expression.
The pieces here, modestly-titled 'Fragments I-XII' resist definition. An idiosyncratic 'folk' music, contemporary composition, improvisation, any and all of these may apply from moment to moment - her music is a living, changing thing. Iva Bittová was previously showcased in 2007 on the widely-acclaimed ECM album Mater, flanked by the chamber orchestra Solamente Naturali and the Bratislava Conservatory Choir. Vladimír Godár's cantata was in fact inspired by Bittová's vocal art, by its energy, discipline, and intuitive and emotional power.
Personnel: Iva Bittová (voice, violin, kalimba)
Tracklisting
John Surman
Marcin Wasilewski Trio & Joe Lovano
Sebastian Rochford
Elina Duni, Rob Luft, Fred Thomas & Matthieu Michel
Keith Jarrett
Mette Henriette
Keith Jarrett
Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen & Jorge Rossy
Steve Argüelles, Iva Bittová, Barbara Louise Gogan, Arto Lindsay, Renaud-Gabriel Pion, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Erik Truffaz