Arnqvist, Maria
Mary Rose And The Purple Quintet
Debut album from Swedish multiinstrumentalist and composer Maria Arnqvist. With seven critically praised and forward thinking albums with her exciting avant/folk/psych duo Siri Karlsson - now is the time to finally hear Maria Arnqvist's beautiful solo work. While being classicaly trained on the piano and clarinet as a child, she switched to saxophone during a stay in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. 'Mary Rose And The Purple Quintet' is an impressing body of work and is also the result of Maria Arnqvist returning to practicing the piano and a will to compose for a smaller ensemble. The colorful music is both instrumental and with lyrics in English and is inspired by musical encounters and travels such as a year in Boston and teaching and touring in West Africa. The tunes carry stories where Mary Rose is one of the characters we meet. While 'Esprit' is the kickstart of an wild adventure, 'Purple Sails' and 'L'Air Lyre' is the sound of the journey going back, of coming home in the middle of the night and seeing things in a new light... It's adventurous music, bold and brave. And deeply moving as well. The rich and atmospheric arrangements is swirling around Maria and the piano, which is in the centre of a chamber orchestra with an original setting of instruments such as kora, lap steel, violin, cello and more. Influences stem from Penguin Café Orchestra, Moondog, PJ Harvey, Philip Glass to Art Ensemble of Chicago. It's a kind of romantic "avant-pop-chamber-proto- kraut with spices of jazz and folk", if you like...