Ceder

A fascinating album. Improvised in 2016 by composer, researcher, and musician extraordinare Cara Stacey in collaboration with Peruvian flautist Camilo Ángeles, this musical reflection on the Cederberg area of South Africa (which Stacey describes as “bleak, hot, alien”) brings together an impressively-wide and surprisingly-convincing array of musical idioms together. The album’s two excellent closing pieces, “Cederberg” and “Silbato Azteca,” give a sense of how this works: the first is a suite with quasi-serialist, sunny minimalist and free jazz echoes; the second is a bird-filled soundscape that eventually turns to folk melody. Memorable and rewarding, complemented too by the players’ beautiful tone.