Ukrainian pianist Misha Alperin returns with another gorgeous trio record for ECM, this time with fellow member of the Moscow Art Trio, horn player Arkady Shilkloper and German cellist Anja Lechner of the Rosamunde Quartet. The solos, duos and trios in a programme of many moods feature fascinating, profoundly melodic music with lyricism and dazzling technical skills in abundance. Pianist Misha Alperin has had a singular career. Born in the Ukraine in 1956, and growing up in Moldavia, he studied classical piano until he was 20, then worked as a freelance soloist. He heard no jazz at all until he was 24. The experience was decisive: in 1980 he founded Moldavia's first-ever jazz quartet, whose repertoire linked jazz improvising with local folk tradition. Moving to Moscow, he worked as a keyboardist with a jazz-rock group, as a classical musician, and a solo pianist performing his own music. A chance encounter with Arkady Shilkloper, horn player with the Bolshoi Brass Quintet and the Moscow Philharmonic, led to the formation of a duo whose ECM debut, 'Wave of Sorrow', gained them worldwide attention. The combination of Alperin's music of many moods - elegiac, robust, tragicomic -, his virtuoso pianism, and the silvery beauty of Shilkloper's horn sounds was unique. Alperin/Shilkloper toured both as a duo and as members of the Moscow Art Trio. Since 1993 Alperin has been based in Oslo where he teaches jazz piano and improvisation at the Norwegian State Academy. He has since become a highly influential figure in the new Northern jazz. Other Alperin ECM albums are 'North Story' and 'First Impression' (both with Shilkloper, the latter also with John Surman), 'Night' (trio with Anja Lechner) and the solo 'At Home'.
