Stories Yet to TellECM *****

This is the second ECM album by the trio of Norma Winstone (voice), Klaus Gesing (bass clarinet/soprano) and Glauco Venier (piano), and it’s redolent of the chemistry that marked their Grammy-nominated (and European awards-winning) Distances. Winstone, a gifted lyricist, set words to originals by Gesing, Venier, Wayne Shorter, Maria Schneider and Mexican composer Armando Manzanero, while the trio also absorbed 13th- and 16th- century music, folk and 20th- century Brazilian music into the collective alchemy that makes it so distinctive. To illuminate and colour such a range of material, yet preserve its essential character and remain so emphatically themselves, is remarkable. The trio is a blend of personalities that, at its best, evokes a myriad of emotions and responses with the utmost economy of means. It’s subtle, simple, sophisticated and beautiful. See classical.ie