Jan Garbarek: In Praise Of Dreams

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

It has been more than 25 years since I read a review of Norwegian saxophonist Garbarek's Places album in a British paper and, entranced by a description of its airy and esoteric contents, eagerly sent off a postal note to some obscure shop in London. I've played that album with regular delight ever since.

Back then, Garbarek was an unfamiliar name on the small new ECM label out of Germany. Today, ECM boasts close to 1000 releases, has a contemporary classical wing (New Series), and Garbarek gave the company its first million-seller when he teamed up with the Hilliard Ensemble for the sax'n'choral Officium a decade ago.

Garbarek's tone once had an icy and emotionally distant quality. Some of that hasn't changed, but over time and familiarity it seems to have become more emotionally engaging, no more so than here with viola player Kim Kashkashian and Manu Katche on acoustic and electronic drums and looped percussion.

Located at the junction of European folk, chamber music, third-stream jazz and world music, In Praise of Dreams is just that: a wistful eulogy to half-formed thoughts given depth, texture and context by three equals in the art of quietude.

Label: ECM/ODE