Label: Sunnyside Records, 2020

Personnel - Lucian Ban: piano; John Surman: baritone and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet; Mat Maneri: viola.

The new explorative trio co-led by Romanian pianist Lucian Ban, American violist Mat Maneri and British multi-reedist John Surman focuses on interpretations of Romanian folk tunes recorded and transcribed by Hungarian pianist/composer Béla Bartók in the early 1900’s. The latter, a pioneer ethnomusicologist, travelled the Romanian countryside for eight years to collect peasant songs, some of which appear here with special arrangements by the trio. Ban and Maneri's musical affinities with Bartok's work compelled them to point out Surman as the third member of the ensemble due to his strong folk background and erudite sound development.

“The Dowry Song” is a wonderful piece that develops with unflinching purpose. With Ban providing a solid base in 5/4 time, Maneri inserts some percussive substance by gently plucking the strings, while the unmistakable, astonishing sound of Surman on baritone gets on top of everything. Before the crescendo that anticipates the finale, saxophone and viola embark on melodic parallels underpinned by a dramatic piano accompaniment that becomes tonally richer whenever Ban hits the lower registers.

“Up There” features Surman on bass clarinet, an instrument from which he draws mesmeric melodies with a magic touch. Maneri contributes to this asymmetric sculptural exploration with an appealingly tenuous asperity, benefitting from Ban’s textural creativity. The pianist improvises on this number over an ostinato equally shared by sax and viola.

The dynamic “Violin Song” exudes the freedom of an avant-folk experiment. There’s muted piano pedals and bold harmonies, fast elliptical soprano trajectories alternating with carefully paced folk melodies, angular viola cries, and heartfelt unisons capable of creating a strong emotional effect on the listener.

From this point on, the trio concentrates more on profound, introvert, sometimes mournful meditations such as “The Return”, “What a Great Night This Is, a Messenger Was Born”, “Carol” and “Bitter Love Song”, an icy yet translucent exercise where a frank dialogue between bass clarinet and viola occurs briefly with an absence of harmony.

The coherently calibrated layering of these three instruments never ceases, and considerably more light can be found on “The Mighty Sun”, a motivic classical tone poem, and on the closing piece, “Transylvanian Dance”, a Garbarek-esque folktale with repeating rhythmic cadences and dexterous chordal work.

Following a structured course of action, Transylvanian Folk Songs manages to be at once freewheeling and languidly pastoral.