Maya Bennardo - Four Strings [Kuyin 002]

Coming in from Sweden these days is Maya Bennardo's new album "Four Strings", the second full length release on Kristofer Svensson's label Kuyin. Put out on the circuit on September 16th, 2k22 this brand new release sees the NYC-based violin player tackling two extended compositions for solo performance. Whilst the opening "Duk Med Broderi Och Bordets Kant", written and composed by label head Kristofer Svensson, transports a stripped down and emotional, yet somewhat even folksy and traditionally nordic feel, shaped by an innate melancholia and divided by intended periods of silence brought to life by Maya Bernardo whose tender performance adds a certain familiarity to the sound of the piece's main motif, the subsequent title piece that is Eva-Maria Houben's "Four Strings" brings forth a rather minimalist and Minimal Music-leaning compositional approach, starting out from an angle of droning tones and working its way up towards airy, somewhat enchanted tenderness before falling back into an intense, electric and certainly vibrant droning overtone movements over its course of almost 27 minutes playtime. Defo one for the acquired musical taste of an avantgarde-informed audience, this.