Layale Chaker & Sarafand: Radio Afloat
In a Circle Records

Ethel & Layale Chaker: Vigil
In a Circle Records

Testifying to her versatility and creative fecundity, Lebanese violinist Layale Chaker recently issued two separate releases of new material, one a collaboration with the new-music string quartet ETHEL and the other a set featuring her chamber-jazz quintet Sarafand. While Chaker's presence is very much felt on Vigil, she's on equal footing with the quartet and functions like a fifth member. On Radio Afloat, she's more dominant and establishes herself clearly as the quintet's leader. Consistent with that, Vigil features compositions by all five participants, whereas the follow-up to Sarafand's 2019 debut Inner Rhyme is an all-Chaker programme. Musically the differences between Vigil and Radio Afloat are pronounced. Of course the instrumentation involved changes from one to the other, but it's the stylistic character of each project that creates the greatest separation. Vigil aligns more closely to contemporary classical writing than Radio Afloat, which, in presenting Chaker's singing voice as well as violin, exemplifies a pronounced Arabic flavour.

Such breadth comes naturally to the multi-lingual Chaker, who was born in Paris, raised in Lebanon, and is now Brooklyn-based. Her multi-hued music is at one moment jazz- or classical-tinged and at another evokes her Lebanese background. Her chamber opera Ruinous Gods premiered at the 2024 Spoleto Festival to much acclaim, and her compositions have been performed throughout the world on some of the most renowned stages. ETHEL—Ralph Farris (viola), Kip Jones (violin), Dorothy Lawson (cello), and Corin Lee (violin)—brings a distinguished history to the collaboration. Founded in 1998, the quartet has issued eleven of its own recordings, appeared as a guest on more than fifty others, premiered over 250 works, and performed around the globe.

As mentioned, each ETHEL member contributes a piece to Vigil, but its centrepiece is undoubtedly Chaker's five-part title composition. It grew out of her need to respond to the events of the October 2019 revolution in Lebanon and later the wildfires that ravaged wildlife and flora in Australia and Brazil. While she was initially incapacitated by such goings-on, she eventually used the anger she was feeling to produce an extended work that would honour “those who flood the streets with courage in all corners of the world” and celebrate “the resilience we all carry within us.” Drawing also for inspiration from Warsan Shire's poem “What They Did Yesterday Afternoon,” Vigil is, in Chaker's words, “a call for hope, for thoughtful action, and for deeper listening.” Alluding to a line from Shire's text (“i come from two countries / one is thirsty / the other is on fire / both need water”), two of the movements are titled “Of Thirst” and “Of Fire.” The former introduces the piece with sinuous gestures and a serpentine melody that blossoms into intricate interplay and rhythm-driven ruminations. The queasy “Vigil” paints an unsettled picture, with the material's shadowy aura intensified by a siren-like figure. The activity level immediately escalates when “Of Fire” leaps into action with stabbing gestures and laser focus. Ululating expressions imbue “Later that night, I held an atlas in my lap” with a mournful quality, the aching movement a lament sprinkled with pizzicato textures and poignant solo statements. The concluding “Interlude and Epilogue” finds Chaker trading mourning for action as the five intertwine vociferously, their playing conveying resilience rather than resignation. While Vigil is generally through-composed, the players show themselves to be as comfortable improvising as reading charts.

As dominant a work as Vigil is, it's still only one of six pieces on the release. Preceding it is Farris's Novembers, whose swaying rhythm acts as an entrancing lure that's intensified by the strings' swells and the faint accent of a percussive knock. Subtly elegiac in tone, the material eventually builds into an aggressive, defiant declamation, with individual players contributing passionate solos before assembling into a blistering mass. Following Vigil is Jones's infectious Teen Mania, whose spirited fiddling calls to mind the Celtic folk tradition. In addition to Vigil, Chaker contributes a frame drum-enhanced arrangement of Sayyid Darwish's Salla Fina Llahdu, which re-establishes the album's serpentine sinuosity after the effervescent folk of Jones's tune. In keeping with its title, Lawson's The Demon Within expands from a portentous swarm into a seething, shrieking vortex, after which Lee's Sketka caps the release with a rousing blast of Balkan dance music, the frame drum once again present to bolster thrust.

Notes by Chaker also give clarity to the title of her Sarafand release, with the violinist describing it as “the vision of a radio lost at sea, evoking a reflection on the intertwined destinies of people and the natural world, which manifest even louder in times of collective pain.” Catastrophic environmental damage resulting from reckless human choices and political irresponsibility is again a theme, with Chaker wanting to remind us of our common need and shared responsibility to reverse the destructive path we've sent the planet on. As mentioned, she assumes a more dominant role on Radio Afloat than on Vigil, but her Sarafand partners are hardly secondary presences. Cellist Jake Charkey, pianist Phillip Golub, bassist Sam Minaie, and drummer John Hadfield are critical to the band's identity and the music's impact. Adding to the unit's distinctive sound, Golub plays microtonal keyboard on a few pieces. The album's nine tracks can be experienced as distinct entities, even though it was conceived as a suite of connecting movements.

The opening track, “Intro - ‘...and from the dove I raised myself',” evokes her Lebanese roots instantly when Chaker's wordless ululations appear alongside a droning backdrop. Strings emote in expressive counterpoint as Hadfield sprinkles the air with percussive flourishes to enhance the atmospheric effect. The two-part Anatomie of Titus follows, with “Fall of Rome” and “Quasi Samai” presenting the band in collective flight. As the sole violinist (as opposed to one of three on Vigil), Chaker's string playing also imposes itself more conspicuously on the album material. Initially slow and dreamy, “Quasi Samai” tickles the ear with alluring melodies and microtonal keyboard timbres before gaining velocity for a powerful turn by Charkey and a rousing percussive display by Hadfield. “Khab Nisan” wastes no time getting up to speed, with violin and cello delivering a unison voicing of the theme and a path thereafter cleared for urgent solos by Chaker, Golub (on microtonal keyboard), and Charkey. Her emotive vocal on “Ocean to Ocean” shows she's capable of making as strong an impact as a singer as violinist. Balancing passages of intense energy are slow, contemplative ones whose rubato delivery bolsters the music's dreamy tone (“Nocturnal: Backburn,” for example). While Chaker's clearly the leader, the recording makes clear that each member is critical to the whole when contributions by all are woven into the arrangements.

June 2024