Naktės

Recorded in small, cosy rooms and only after dark, this album glitters with a sense of wonder at the special world of the night. Naktės is a coming together of Lithuanian folk melodies sung and played on kanklės (Lithuanian zither) by Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, accompanied by the innovative electronics and guitar playing of the Belgian Bert Cools and the breathy sound of bansuri (South Asian side-blown flute) played by Frenchman Jean Christophe Bonnafous.

This, their third album, is gentle and beautiful, each track yielding slightly different groupings of the sounds available to the trio; there is a mix of instrumental and vocal numbers. Jurgelevičiūtė often abandons words and, on tracks such as the exquisite ‘Mirra’, uses her voice as an instrument in a similar fashion to the way in which Sigur Rós employ high vocals. She also extends the tonal capabilities of the kanklės, playing it like a hammered dulcimer to produce a tight tremolo on ‘Rototo’. The combination of acoustic instruments with Bonnafous' warm and muted electronic soundscapes is reminiscent of early Four Tet, while Cools' bansuri adds an extra airy melodic element that makes for an album that is as delicate as it is deep; something very special indeed.