Lucian Ban: The Athenaeum Concert - VINYL LP
Artist: Lucian Ban
Label: Sunnyside
Product Type: VINYL LP
UPC: 016728176712
Genre: Jazz
Release Date: 2025-10-03
Number of Discs: 1
Additional Details: 180 GRAM VINYL
There is a spirit that passes through all the folkloric music of the world. The sounds may differ from region to region and from people to people, but folk music holds deep truths that speak to the connective tissue of humanity. There is something mysteriously universal in the way peasants or, for that matter, jazz musicians approach music. For this double release, long time collaborators pianist Lucian Ban and violist Mat Maneri alongside legendary woodwind master John Surman further explore the folk music of Transylvania collected by Béla Bartók more than a hundred years ago. For the past five years the trio has deepened the spirit of their music while touring, as can be heard on their new recordings, Cantica Profana and The Athenaeum Concert (vinyl LP only). From Ban and Maneri's informative liner notes: "Once we took the music on the road an unfolding of a new musical spirit was happening to us with each concert. Revisiting the dances, carols, dowry songs, doinas and lamentations first recorded in Timisoara in 2018 with each live performance new vistas would open, new forms would spring, themes and instrumental roles would be freely interchanged, a 'pulsing life of peasant-music,' to use Bartok's own words, carrying us forward." Extensive touring allowed the trio to really explore their repertoire. The pieces began to expand and evolve. Surman observed, "Sometimes using small fragments of material and developing those fragments whilst trying to retain the spirit of the original material." Each performance allowed the trio to approach each song in a new and original manner, whether it was dropping the theme entirely or just mixing in subtle hints of the melodies or harmonies to lead the group into new territories. The trio had matured to become a seemingly living musical organism, dancing to their own contemporary folkloric sounds. To find such a dedicated collaborator in Surman has been a blessing for Maneri and Ban: "He has an uncanny way of playing these historic melodies in his own language, while never giving up the recipe that made them so durable in the first place. His wondrous range of instruments and sonorities wove a wonderful sense of orchestration that allowed us to enhance our own extended techniques and rhythmic altercations." Each musician brings a unique sound and approach to the music, from Maneri's singular microtonal viola tones and esoteric musical influences to Ban's jazz leanings and archaic Romanian romanticism to Surman's contemporary cool and Cornish shine. The material presented on Cantica Profana and The Athenaeum Concert stem from the pieces the trio recorded on their initial recording, Transylvanian Folk Songs (Sunnyside, 2020), yet the live reinterpretations of the pieces are so radical that a new songbook was born underlining the extraordinary power contained in these historical gems and the profound originality of an ensemble working night after night in unbound creativity.Cantica Profana compiles recordings from three different concerts, all captured from November 2022 to November 2023, in remarkable clarity from tremendous sounding spaces, including the Centre Culturel Opderchmelz in Dudelange, Luxembourg, Stanser Musiktage in Stans, Switzerland, and Strasbourg Jazzdor Festival in France. The June 2024 concert at the fabulous Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest was so singularly rewarding in it's sound quality and performance that the trio decided to release it as a stand-alone vinyl LP release, entitled The Athenaeum Concert.
Tracks:
1.1 Evening In the Village (Bitter Love)
1.2 Dowry Song
1.3 Up There
1.4 Violin Song
On average, orders containing available-to-ship items are processed and dispatched within 1-2 business days, although this is not guaranteed.
Orders containing preorder items will ship as 1 fulfillment once all items in the order are available to ship.
Please note, Tower Records Merchandise and Exclusives are dispatched separately. On average, these items take 3-4 business days to dispatch, although this is not guaranteed.
The estimated shipping times that are displayed at checkout are from the point of dispatch.
See our shipping policy for more information.
We have a 30-day return policy, which means you have 30 days after receiving your item(s) to make a return.
For orders created between 11/17/2025 and 12/31/2025, we have extended our normal return period. For orders made between this period, customers have up to 60 days from the receipt of goods to return an item. Please see our Christmas Returns page for more information.
To be eligible for a return of an unwanted item, your item must be in the same condition that you received it and in its original packaging.
In the unfortunate situation that a product is damaged/faulty/incorrect, let us know and we will endeavor to correct any issue as soon as possible.
Please see our refund policy for more information.
