The album “9” of the poetry and improvised music project “listen” will be released on May 14 under the auspices of the publishing house “Jersika Records”.
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According to the publishers, the album, released in digital and vinyl format, includes nine stories in Latvian, Russian and English, read by the poet Aleksandra Line, while the music is composed by pianist and composer Edgars Cīrulis and Danish double bassist and composer Albert Reinholdt Østergaard.
The analog recording of the album took place on August 14 and 15, 2020 in Ventspils Concert Hall “Latvija”, in the open recording session with the presence of listeners.
The “listen” stories on “9” are directly inspired by music: each of the poems written by Alexander Lines has been written in Edgars Cīrulis’ concerts, and then transformed into a “spoken-word” or spoken word album with music composed by Edgars Cīrulis and Albert Reinhold Ostegod. These nine compositions tell the story of each of us who is just a human being – strong and vulnerable, practical and dreamy at the same time, a child inside and a reliable multifaceted adult outside who tries to build a better world instead of looking for and finding it, the publishers write.
An additional piece can also be heard on the vinyl record – an instrumental arrangement for Imants Kalniņš’s composition “Milky Way”, which both musicians have performed several times in their concerts. When the recording session, originally scheduled for spring 2020, had to be postponed due to pandemic restrictions, the “listen” trio talked weekly through video calls, during which Cīrulis and Ostegod often played this composition together, each from their homes, so they could play it in person. in the concert hall “Latvija” between the first and second wave of the pandemic became a special confirmation of the era.
“The relationship between poetry and jazz music has a long history – as early as the 1950s, poets from the so-called ‘drummer’ movement took inspiration from jazz clubs in New York, where the leading bibop jazz musicians of the time played. Poetry evenings were common in the 1960s. It is a pleasure that there is such cooperation between poets and jazz musicians in Latvia as well, and one such good example has been recorded and released on a record, “says the head of Jersika Records about” 9 “. Mareks Ameriks.
“I’m excited about how many people have wanted to make a contribution to this album because they believed in my lyrics and the idea of the project. It inspires me not to give up,” says Alexander Line.
The sound director of the album “9” is Mārtiņš Krastiņš, the cover design uses photos by Oskars Upenieks, the author of the design is Edgars Ameriks.
The album is released in vinyl format and is also available on Spotify, Apple Music and other major music streaming sites, as well as on Youtube and Bandcamp profiles.
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