Jazz
Recorded September and November 2003
Magnetic North Orchestra
Per Jorgensen trumpet, vocals
Fredrik Lundin bass flute, saxophones
Jon Balke piano and keyboards
Bjarte Eike violin
Peter Spissky violin
Thomas Pitt bass violin
Helge Andreas Norbakken percussion
Ingar Zach percussion
"Diverted Travels", the third ECM album by the pan-Scandinavian Magnetic North Orchestra, extends the radius of the work already documented on "Further" (recorded 1993) and "Kyanos" (recorded 2001) and confirms once again that Jon Balke is one of the most unique writer-arrangers in contemporary jazz. "Diverted Travels" features a radically revised line-up - only the leader and trumpeter Per Jorgensen remain from the original band, but the music, which continues to move in mysterious ways, with ever-arresting harmonic variety and textural differentiation, and a delicate equilibrium between the composed and the free, is unmistakably Balke's.
Jon Balke
Active Decades: '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: 1955 in Norway
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Modern Creative, Modern Free, Post-Bop, Modern Composition, Folk-Jazz, Experimental Ambient, Structured Improvisation
Norwegian pianist Jon Balke is an avant-garde-leaning musician with a bent toward mixing various stylistic influences, including contemporary jazz, post-bop, rock, folk, world, and classical. He released his debut album, On and On, in 1991. A year later he made his ECM debut with Nonsentration. A member of the Magnetic North Orchestra, Balke has also released several albums with the ensemble, including Kaynos in 2002 and Diverted Travels in 2004. In 2009, Balke paired up with a similarly inclined group of musicians -- including trumpeter Jon Hassell, violinist Kheir Eddine M'Kachiche, vocalist Amina Alaoui, and others -- for the experimental ethnic fusion album Siwan.
---Matt Collar, All Music Guide |
