• artist:
  Rigmor Gustafsson & radio.string.quartet.vienna
• country:
  Sweden
• release year:
  2010
• style(s): Instrumental Vocal
• formats:
  • CD (Compact Disc)
• record submitted by:
  Bigathing
• label:
  ACT Music&Vision GmbH&Co. KG
• publisher:
  ACT Music&Vision GmbH&Co. KG
• 
  buy this record

Rigmor Gustafsson & radio.string.quartet.vienna

CALLING YOU

In musical history, the most pioneering collaborations were often the least obvious. Calling You will probably
also be a surprise for most, as Swedish singer Rigmor Gustafsson joins forces with the radio.string.quartet.vienna.
Both parties are certainly capable of surprises: Gustafsson has gained considerable attention with her
interpretations of artists ranging from Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach to Michel Legrand, very different in style
to the originals, whilst the radio.string.quartet.vienna succeeded in "changing the rules and prospects for the
traditional string quartet" (The Guardian) in 2006, with Celebrating The Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Rigmor Gustafsson has long established herself as a prima inter pares amongst Sweden's jazz singers. Having
trained in America as well as her home country, she embodies the merits of both regions' schools of jazz. Whether
in her headstrong interpretations or, most recently, her own compositions on Alone With You, it is always the
naturalness, the allure and the depth of her singing which stands out. "She has her soul in her voice," summed up
her friend and mentor Nils Landgren. The prominent late critic Werner Burkhardt added, "Her soul speaks to other
souls."
The radio.string.quartet.vienna also assumes an undisputable special position. With the violins of Bernie
Mallinger and Johannes Dickbauer, which cover the entire sound spectrum, Asja Valcic's furious cello and Cynthia
Liao's lascivious viola, the quartet can claim to have totally redefined the string quartet genre. No other ensemble
emulates their balance between classically stringent sound architecture and improvisational imagination, the
unique, brilliant, expressive power of the softest pizzicati to overwhelming rhythmic "stampedes", unheard of up
until now from strings. None other than John McLaughlin himself found them to be "simply unique."
For those involved the collaboration was astonishingly logical. "The first time I heard the
radio.string.quartet.vienna, in 2008 in Essen, I fell in love with them. I felt a special connection due to their
homage to the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I played the guitar when I was a girl and my absolute hero was John
McLaughlin which was probably, in hindsight, a bit unusual for a girl from a farm in Sweden without any musical
tradition in her family," says Gustafsson. Only a short while later she asked the Viennese group if they would be
interested in working with her. Bernie Mallinger, the leader of the r.s.q.v., thought this was a "funny coincidence".
"For all of us, the Beatles were our first "drug" and we had, therefore, been toying with the idea of doing something
with song for sometime already," he explains. "Despite this though, we thought about it carefully beforehand. We
wanted to maintain the special quality of the quartet and not end up, as is often the case with many string duets, as
an accompanying "keyboard substitute". Yet Gustafsson quickly ruled out this danger in her boundless trust: 'You
compose and I'll sing!'"
This trust continued throughout the recording process. Each musician was allowed to contribute songs which
were important to them and which would be suitable for the project. As such, the tracks range from pop songs such
as Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years" and Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic", to the Burt Bacharach classic
"Close To You", jazz standards ("Makin' Whoopie") and intricate rarities such as Joni Mitchell's "Drycleaner from
Des Moines" and Richard Bona's "Please Don't Stop", as well as the Swedish folk song "Ack Värmeland Du
Sköna". This great musical richness is presented in the highly distinctive, sometimes warm, sometimes dynamic but
always enjoyable style of the r.s.q.v., and carried by Gustafsson's individual and moving voice.