River Silver

After two exemplary ECM discs in the company of Andy Sheppard, Michel Benita has an album with his own group, Ethics, marking his label debut as a leader. The Ethics band is international, and the Algiers-born bassist leads a line-up comprised of a flugelhornist from Fribourg, Switzerland, a koto player from Tokyo, a guitarist from Drøbak, Norway, and a French drummer who once lived in Turkey as a member of the Istanbul Symphony. The group's music, correspondingly, flows - like the glistening river of the title - beyond borders. Colours of folk and colours of jazz are blended in Michel Benita's writing, multi-idiomatic in a very natural way. Eivind Aarset's guitars and what Benita calls "organic electronics" gently envelop the music. The whole sound-picture is finely-realized in the responsive acoustics of the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, where 'River Silver' was recorded in April 2015, with Manfred Eicher producing.