Vespers

In 2006 Finnish pianist, harpist, and composer Iro Haarla garnered praise for Northbound, which featured a quintet that included trumpeter Mathias Eick, saxophonist Trygve Seim, bassist Ulf Krokfors, and drummer Jon Christiensen. Haarla and the same band released Vespers in 2011 and it’s a keeper. Haarla’s compositions here are slow, impressionistic, and elegiac. At times, spiky dissonances add tension to the rippling, enveloping music. And as the title indicates, Vespers has a yearning spiritual quality. “A Port On a Distant Shore” opens the album on a characteristically melancholy note. It starts with a muted trumpet statement accompanied by harp; throughout the track, Christensen provides cymbals hits that float in the aural spectrum likes motes in the air. Fluttering harp runs mark “A Window Facing South,” while “The Shimmer of Falling Stars” has a touching, ballad-like feel. On “Doxa,” the band displays an edgier sound that contrasts with the other material. “Adieux” serves as the lyrical, atmospheric closer.