David Darling
Cycles

...Dissonant elements, yet brought to unity... 

Bringing together such a group in 1982 was no easy feat, even for Manfred Eicher’s ECM... The dark, ebony-like woodiness of Arild Andersen's bass, the piano filled with ancient and ever-new allusions and echoes from Steve Kuhn, the strings stretched between the southern folk tradition and the silent roads leading elsewhere by Oscar Castro Neves, the reeds of Jan Garbarek that tell of the "song of the north" while being open to a thousand different stimuli and traditions, the strength full of sweetness of the skins, the sitar, and tabla of Collin Walcott, who left us so soon and so young, alongside the dream of this music, this album, of the leader David Darling... There are five of them, but in each track, they seem to breathe together, as a single entity... They seem for a moment to move apart, at any instant, only to return, to find each other again, to show each other the way...

The odes of "Cycles", for example, "Namaste," "Trio," "Quintet and Coda"... Performed almost breathlessly, in the infinite motif of the same story... The extraordinary "Ode", where Garbarek and Walcott seem to converse together, to speak, almost exchanging their instruments... I say this with great emotion, as "Bremen" is about to be released, one of the very few official live documents of the saxophonist, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the passing of the member of Oregon is approaching... I believe that in that fourth track, they both surrendered to one of the most beautiful solos they have ever composed... And because they were not solos, but a song together, profound knowledge, respect, and infinite sensitivity...

An old adage says... "All rivers go to the sea, and the sea never fills up"... Credit goes to the guidance, the direction given by the group's "leader," David Darling... I would love it if among the experiences led by our local cellists, such as Mario Brunello and Giovanni Sollima, full of references and echoes, there would one day be a delicate thought for this album... For the voices of these musicians... For all this joy of coming together...

Life is passion... And this is the message of "Cycles"...