by Ian Mann
July 08, 2013
/ LIVE
A fascinating evening of music making spanning several continents and cultures.
SANS - Ethno-Ambient Journey, Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham, 06/07/2013 (part of Cheltenham Music Festival).
Regular Jazzmann visitors will know that I have covered the annual Cheltenham Jazz Festival (one of the undoubted highlights of my personal jazz calendar) very comprehensively for the last six or seven years. However I’d never been tempted to attend its sister event, the mainly classical Cheltenham Music Festival until this intriguing performance leapt out at me from the pages of the festival brochure. The fact that that it was endorsed by Fiona Talkington of BBC Radio 3’s ground-breaking Late Junction was something of a deciding factor. I value the judgement of this most discerning of broadcasters, her choices almost always reveal something of musical interest and are invariably well worth listening to.
SANS is a quartet led by multi-instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist Andrew Cronshaw, who also acts as a world music correspondent for fRoots magazine. The members of the group appeared on Cronshaw’s 2010 solo album “The Unbroken Surface of Snow” and following a series of successful live performances in Finland during 2011 the decision was taken to continue as a working band with the roles of Finnish singer Sanna Kurki -Suonio and Canberra based reeds player Ian Blake much increased. The group is completed by Tigran Aleksanyan who specialises on the Armenian reed pipe or duduk. With Cronshaw majoring on the zither and Finnish kantele the band’s claim to possess a totally unique instrumental configuration doesn’t seem at all fanciful. I was particularly keen to witness Aleksanyan perform on the the duduk, an instrument I’ve never seen played live before, but also found the presence of Blake’s soprano sax and bass clarinet, two instruments regularly seen in jazz circles, rather re-assuring, a base from which to advance.
Cronshaw has a passion for the folk music of the UK, Europe and beyond and his merging of folk elements from different cultures reminded me of a scaled down, folkier version of jazz pianist and composer Tony Haynes’ various Grand Union Orchestra projects. Cronshaw has a particular affinity for the folk music of Finland which has resulted in the albums “On the Shoulders of the Great Bear” and the aforementioned “The Unbroken Surface of Snow”.
Tonight’s SANS performance was subtitled “Ethno-Ambient Journey” and it’s certainly true that the quartet take the listener on something of a musical exploration, centred on the Finnish folk tradition but including elements of other traditional musics from around the world. They also put on something of a “show” by embracing various elements of low key theatricality. This was apparent from the very start as the light dimmed and the disembodied sound of Cronshaw’s ba-wu, a type of Chinese flute, echoed from the gallery. From the opposite side of the hall came the answering call of Blake’s soprano sax, the player sat among the members of the audience. Gradually both musicians made their way to the stage with Cronshaw adopting an increasingly vocalised tone on his instrument. This was a dramatic entrance with the musicians utilising the architectural space around them, creating an ambience that went even further towards explaining that “Ethno-Ambient” subtitle.
Cronshaw now switched to his principal instrument, a seventy four stringed chord zither, subtly amplified and capable of producing an impressive array of sounds in both melodic and rhythmic contexts. For a jazz listener there were moments when it recalled Lyle Mays’ occasional use of autoharp in the Pat Metheny Group.
In a “Talking Heads” style introduction Aleksanyan was next to take the stage, delivering the promised haunting, voice like sound of the duduk as Blake moved to bass clarinet. Last to appear was singer Kurki-Suonio, her vocals treated with a dash of echo. Kurki-Suonio sings entirely in Finnish but there’s no mistaking the passion of her vocalising, here on a traditional Finnish folk song with even deeper Swedish roots. As her singing became more dramatic Blake summoned up unusually deep grooves on his bass clarinet. At its conclusion Kurki-Suonio explained that the piece had been a “song of the sea”, a tale of a woman waiting for her sailor lover to return, the tale actually having a happy ending, rather rare for folk song I’ve always found - but don’t worry there was plenty of pain and suffering to come later on!
Cronshaw introduced the next piece on his astonishing electric zither, duetting with Aleksanyan as the desert heat of the Middle East met the cool of Scandinavia with the two musicians making it sound entirely natural. The duduk was also teamed with sonorous bass clarinet, the Armenian instrument producing a sound that variously recalled clarinet and saxophone yet remained remarkably voice like. Meanwhile Kurki-Suonio’s increasingly impassioned vocals related a cautionary tale of romantic jealousy based around the premise “never trust a violin player!”.
Leader Cronshaw told us something of the kantele, the traditional folk instrument of Finland. In its simplest form it’s a five string zither but there are numerous other versions including a forty string concert model. I’d only heard it played once before by Ray “Chopper” Cooper, former bassist and cellist with folk rockers Oysterband and then only in something of a cameo role.
Cronshaw has taken the concept of the kantele yet further, creating his own custom made double sided instrument combining the kantele with the Madagascan stringed instrument the marovany to create the maroventele - shades here of the double neck guitar excesses of the 1970’s! Joking apart the instrument produced a beautifully haunting sound in in conjunction with both soprano sax and duduk in a series of delicate duets. Even richer textures were to follow in a carefully woven blending of marovantele, duduk, bass clarinet and wordless vocals.
Cronshaw’s musical world tour continued with his playing of the Slovakian fujara, a three holed, immaculately carved shepherd’s wood flute nearly six feet in length. Jokingly referred to as the “big pipe” it produced striking, eerie, haunting harmonics and overtones subtly aided by a little electronic enhancement. The mouth piece is half way down the instrument and when played the fujara towers over the performer. Its other worldly timbres are strangely relaxing, distantly related perhaps to the sound of the orchestral bass flute. Following the fujara set piece Kurki-Suonio’s powerful vocals increased the intensity, for me sometimes recalling the joik singing of the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia. This is an area of music that jazz listeners may recognise from the work of Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, particularly his collaboration with vocalist Agnes Buen Garnas. This particular passage was concluded with a lengthy solo from Aleksanyan in which he fully demonstrated the range of the duduk, contrasting well with the grainy sound of Blake’s bass clarinet.
Alaksanyan was also prominent in the early stages of the next item, taking the first instrumental solo before the piece became a vehicle for Kurki-Suonio’s hugely emotive vocalising. Her singing has frequently been described as “elemental” and she was at her most powerful here, almost spitting out the lyrics in a dramatic display of venom. Blake’s’ alternately biting and keening soprano sax provided empathic accompaniment. Kurki-Suonio is a charismatic performer, embellishing her passionate vocals with small but dramatic hand gestures. Many of her songs are drawn from Finland’s national epic the Kalevala, the songs of ancient Karelia. This was a vocal tour de force, harsh but gripping and with a dramatically sudden ending.
Cronshaw’s zither had been at the heart of the ensemble, glueing it together as the only faintly chordal instrumental whilst also performing a primary rhythmic function. Kurki-Suonio introduced the next piece as a Finnish wedding song, a bitter sweet experience in the Finnish culture as the bride leaves the family home. This proved to be a solo feature for Cronshaw’s remarkably versatile zither, a fascinating and sometimes beautiful investigation of its wide ranging melodic and textural qualities and more.
The wedding theme continued into another traditional Finnish song, this time an everyday tale of infanticide and retribution, the kind of subject that crops up in folk song the world over. Besides a typically emotive Kurki-Suonio vocal the arrangement also featured Cronshaw using a slide on his zither to create a kind of Finnish blues, like Sibelius meeting Robert Johnson at the crossroads.
The stalls at the Parabola arts centre were pretty much full and the festival audience gave the group an excellent reception. They were tempted back to play an encore and offered the crowd a choice between tunes from Finland and its close cultural neighbour Estonia. The latter won out and proved to be a gentle, beautiful lullaby. The fact that one couldn’t understand Kurki-Suonio’s words hardly seemed to matter, one got their sense intuitively in much the same way as English speakers do on hearing the music of Scots Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, an artist with a considerable crossover following. The duet between duduk and soprano sax underscored by Cronshaw’s zither was equally affecting as gradually the band slipped away in much the same way as they had arrived, Kurki Suonio exiting first followed by Blake, then leader Cronshaw until finally only Aleksanyan was left on stage although one could still hear “noises off”. Finally Aleksanyan waved shyly at the audience and slipped away to join his colleagues.
This had been a fascinating evening of music making spanning several continents and cultures. It was a bit out of my jazz comfort zone and I sometimes missed that vital element of swing but I enjoyed the discovery of instruments I’d never seen played before and was impressed by the power and passion of Kurki Suonio’s vocals. The band had earlier enquired from the stage as to whether audience members had attended other performances that day but it transpired that very few had. This was not an audience of crossover classical fans and it seemed that most audience members were there to see SANS in their own right, although I suspect that, like me, many of them were first timers. All were impressed and many converted. This was a successful gig in its own right, a stand alone triumph for both band and festival.
For more information on SANS and Andrew Cronshaw visit;