Uri Caine / Gustav Mahler
Dark Flame

Make way for the heretics. Room for emotion.

"Dark Flame" represents the direct continuation of Uri Caine's first release for Winter & Winter: "Urlicht/Primal Light" from 1997. Once again, Caine takes Gustav Mahler's music and transforms it into something else, which is difficult to describe and categorize without resorting to simplifications. Caine's music is explosive in this regard. It rebels against schematism. It is difficult to imprison. It is free music par excellence, for listeners who are free in turn. In 1997, Caine tackled some of Mahler's symphonic themes, highlighting the germs of popular music contained within them, combining them with sounds akin to jazz and the avant-garde. The results? Simply spectacular.

So, initially, my first doubt was whether it was possible to repeat the beauty of "Urlicht/Primal Light." Well, it is possible. Once again, Uri Caine takes our breath away and manages to surprise us. Structurally, the new project is similar to the previous one. The differences lie in the different musical materials used as a basis (Lieder instead of symphonies) and the structure of the ensemble accompanying Caine, which is partially renewed. The music, as mentioned, is not easily describable. The continuous changes in sonic environments are absolutely unpredictable. For example, the piece "Dark Flame" starts with a violin sound unmistakably Mahlerian, but after just a minute, the music of the piano and a trumpet seems to transport us softly into a New York jazz club. "Only Love Beauty" is characterized by grafting a spiritual song of extraordinary beauty onto a classical choir. "In Praise of Lofty Judgement" introduces the first digressions of the ensemble's musicians, who spring into action, disrupting and dismantling the sounds in a spreading cascade of drum solos, electronic frameworks, and rampant brass. "Songs of The Prisoner in the Tower" alternates serenity and madness, between the sound of a sweet clarinet and mad, sudden, muscular electric guitar riffs and drum rolls.

Anyway, the entire album plays excellently on the alternation of rhythms, sensations, environments, without ever losing the thread of the musical narrative. I am convinced that to many admirers of classical music, Uri Caine is a heretic, but I believe he is a musician constantly in search of new horizons. Just as Gustav Mahler was in his time, who did not hesitate, at the risk of criticism, to blend the popular musical traditions of his lands into his music. For this reason, I believe that somewhere Gustav Mahler is enjoying the music of this brilliant pianist. You should too.