Elegy

Golden Ear

Amazing music that grips you from the first note and never lets go. Recorded and mastered at a very high quality level.

Highly recommended!

Wayne Wilmeth

Jazzenzo

Eternity or Aeon. That’s what the Japanese pianist Atzko Kohashi calls her new trio. In which there is room for the Russian cellist Maya Fridman and double bassist Frans van der Hoeven. Improvisation is the common denominator that comes into its own on ‘Elegy’ (lament) in arrangements of both Classical and Jazz pieces.

Since her arrival in Amsterdam in 2005, Kohashi has recorded several duo and trio albums with Van der Hoeven. Fridman, also living in the Netherlands, met them last year. The many colors and shadows in her playing reminded Kohashi of the sound of Albert Ayler’s saxophone and human howls. While improvising, the duo decided to look for works that would lead to new ideas. In addition to four of their own compositions, these were ‘Utviklingssang (Bley), Lonely Woman (Coleman), ‘Gary’s Waltz’ (McFarland), ‘Zingaro’ (Jobim) and the classic ‘Elegy’ (Williams) and ‘Lamento’ (Fauré).

The trio melts the works into a homogeneous whole, with a compelling sad undertone. Silent contemplative music, rich in detail, extensive, and carried with great attention to sound, color and atmosphere. You would think it was very heavy, but because it is all played so beautifully open and beautifully intimately recorded as if you were sitting next to the musicians, the music slowly bites into you.

The shapely storylines from Friedman’s cello are straight from the heart and move between melancholy and hope. Kohashi’s whispering playing flutters around it, nurturing each note before it drops. Themes die off and swell again, improvisations trickle in. Classical and jazz are timelessly connected, while you sink deep into it with indefinable thoughts.

Magnificent.

Erno Elsinga - Source

All About Jazz

Elegy, performed by the Jazz ensemble Aeon Trio featuring Japanese pianist-composer Atzko Kohashi, Dutch bassist Frans van der Hoeven and Russian-born cellist Maya Fridman, draws on the diverse streams of the Netherlands musical pool. The album, structured in a Chamber – Jazz framework, consists of reinterpreted standards, group improvisations, and original compositions by pianist Atzko Kohashi.

The duo of Kohashi and van der Hoeven have performed together for several years. They appear on the albums Lujon, Waltz for Debby and Amstel Moments, and that partnership is the solid structure into which the adventurous Classical Cellist Maya Fridman opens new doorways.

The term “Chamber Jazz” is often used to describe music that isn’t actually Jazz, but would be better characterized as new creative music. The music of Aeon Trio is both Jazz and new creative music, not one or the other, interspersing standards with group improvisation. The set has an arch-like structure, or it could better be analogized as a journey.

The interposing of a classically trained cellist into a well-established Jazz piano and bass duo provokes a three-way conversation not only of musical personalities, as in all jazz performance, but of musical idioms. Throughout the album, Maya Fridman’s improvisations blend motifs from twentieth-century Classical tradition into a seamless Jazz tapestry woven by pianist Kohashi and bassist van der Hoeven. It might sound artificial in words, but as realized in these recorded performances, the divergent musical vocabularies operate inventively, and achieve a commonality of purpose.

It is no exaggeration to state that Elegy is one of the best-sounding hi-res recordings of Jazz or Contemporary Music in my collection.

Mark Werlin - Source

Beter Beeld & Geluid

The Aeon Trio consists of cellist Maya Fridman, pianist Atzko Kohashi and standing acoustic bassist Frans van der Hoeven.

Together they form a jazz trio that goes much further than just the idiom of Jazz. The piano and bass definitely put down a jazz sound, but the cello played by Maya Fridman creates a classic ‘feel’ and then an avant-garde slant. Despite the style of each of the musicians, their interplay is magical and the service of the compositions.

The album tracks are composed by Carla Bley (Útviklingssang), Ornette Coleman (Lonely Woman), Antônio Carlos Jobim (Zingaro, Luíza) and John Williams (Elegy). It also features a classical piece by Gabriel Fauré (Lamento) and some numbers by Atzko Kohashi and the Aeon Trio itself.

All the compositions are sublimely their own in the implementation and instrumentation and never sound forced or imposed. Especially the sometimes sweet and soft, sometimes hard and the crest of notes played by Fridman give the music a great dynamism and expression, with many goose bump moments, especially in the ‘Lonely Woman’ and ‘Lamento’ tracks. What an exciting and versatile cellist!

By using the best microphones, high end cables and custom-built electronics, this album was recorded with a very real sound reminiscent of the best ECM recordings. It all sounds very transparent, warm and direct – just a recording of absolute reference class.

You will want to simply download this fascinating and enchanting album!

Garmt van der Zel - Source

Chattelin Audio Systems

Highly recommended. Elegy is probably the most lifelike sounding music download we have experienced over the years. A true masterpiece!

Peter Chattelin - Source