Mistico Mediterraneo ECM****

This meeting of Sardinian trumpeter/flügelhornist Paolo Fresu, the Corsican choral septet A Filetta and, from the Italian mainland, bandeonist Daniele di Bonaventura, is a rare thing,producing a unified music, rooted in a centuries-old Corsican vocal polyphonic tradition, that remains resolutely contemporary. Successfully marrying the warmth and expressively melismatic passion of folk music with jazz improvisation and the discipline of a chamber ensemble, Mistico Mediterraneois also arrestingly beautiful. The settings – of Latin and Corsican dialect texts and poetry, even a Tibetan mantra – were all composed within the past couple of decades, and while the evolution of A Filetta is a tribute to its leader, Jean- Claude Acquiviva, both Fresu, especially, and di Bonaventura contribute some truly majestic improvisations round the written vocal ensembles. This is gorgeous music with not a note wasted. See classical.ie