Lontano cover

Released

2006

Although trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and his Polish quartet constituted one of the beacons of the ECM label, one must search for shadows — not light — to arrive at their profoundest shores. In that regard, Lontano is as good a place to start as any for those new to this nexus. Here are musicians who think out loud, treating every tune as an epilogue for a journey that long precedes us. This sense of arrival is especially potent in “Cyrhla,” “Kattorna,” and “Trista.” Through it all, Stanko’s brass opens its heart to the possibility of self-expansion, one breath at a time.