One of
Lars Hollmer's most exciting projects of the 2000s is undoubtedly SOLA, featuring six Japanese musicians who bring their own fiery and energetic take to the Swedish composer/keyboardist's music.
Hollmer's most well-known collaborator in SOLA is probably drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, the exemplary percussionist from the crazed avant bass/drums duo
Ruins, but everyone in the group is highly skilled and uniquely attuned to
Hollmer's musical world, perhaps none more than violinist Yuriko Mukoujima. She can be beautifully expressive and even delicate, well suited to
Hollmer's "folk" side, but also summon up powerful solos and thematic statements during those times when SOLA assumes the proportions of a
Mahavishnu-esque monster.
Hollmer was definitely impressed with Mukoujima, and after the September 2001 recording of the SOLA: Lars Hollmer's Global Home Project CD, he returned to Japan to perform in a duo with her. They played together at the Tokyo venue Super Deluxe in March 2003, and the concert was recorded.
Hollmer also continued a long-distance collaboration with Mukoujima after returning to Sweden, playing three songs at the Chickenhouse and having the violinist add her parts in Tokyo. The results are on this gem of a mini-CD (seven tracks and a bit less than 30 minutes in length), which reflects a warm and engaging musical partnership and an opportunity to hear a bit of
Hollmer's music in yet another context. The live program, with
Hollmer on accordion, keyboards, melodica, and vocals and Mukoujima on violin and assorted effects and percussion, includes a number of pieces from previous recordings, rendered with their own intimate appeal. The theme to "Augustins Tema" first appeared in "Augustin Lesage,"
Hollmer's 17-minute multi-tracked suite that closed out the 1992 Hardis Bruts various-artists compilation on the In-Poly-Sons label. "Augustins Tema" was further developed with a multifaceted nearly orchestral arrangement on
Hollmer's Utsikter CD in 2000; some of the details of this version are lacking in the duo setting, but the tune still works nicely as a sort of accordion/violin European folk-classical near-waltz poised halfway between the ballroom and the beer hall. "Höstvisa" (Autumn Song) can be heard in another live version on
the Looping Home Orchestra's Door Floor Something Window complete with experimental sonic embellishments from the likes of
Fred Frith and
Jean Derome; here it is a straightforward lullaby with a stunningly beautiful violin part from Mukoujima -- closer in spirit to the original heard on Tonöga, with the violin matching the melodic soprano saxophone embellishments played by future
Flower Kings contributor Ulf Wallander on the original. One shouldn't expect formality from
Hollmer on-stage -- he often performs barefoot, after all -- so a false start to the pulsing electric keyboard bassline of "Quickstep" (another
LHO piece from Door Floor Something Window) becomes an opportunity for everybody to have a laugh at nobody's expense. "Through Glass," one of
Hollmer's most darkly beautiful pieces, is an interesting choice to be tackled by the duo and probably could have done without the echoing sound effects, but all is forgiven after Sven Aarflot's haunting bassoon part from the original (on Vendeltid) is played and embellished upon by
Hollmer on the accordion and Mukoujima joins in with appropriately atmospheric violin lines. On the three studio-recorded pieces,
Hollmer and Mukoujima's empathy effectively erases the geographical distance between them; these tunes are interspersed amidst the live tracks such that a look at the back-cover recording details is necessary to determine whether the musicians are a few feet or half a world apart. The rollicking Balkan/gypsy-flavored "Sväng Bättre" is a particularly effective display of nimble-fingered accordion and violin dexterity. ~ Dave Lynch