Dino Saluzzi

Senderos was originally planned as a solo album by bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi, but ECM label-owner Manfred Eicher made an off-the-cuff suggestion that drummer Jon Christensen be added on a few tracks. The encounter worked so well that Christensen ended up staying on board for ten out of 14 tracks. Saluzzi specialises in a dark, intense kind of quietness, full of tangos and folksongs but also sometimes extraordinarily dissonant. The results are somehow nostalgic and threatening at the same time. Christensen responds thoughtfully, sometimes with papery rustles and patters, but just as often with abrupt kicks and stabs at the drums. At 79 minutes in total, this is an album to be digested slowly, but it’s nonetheless a fascinating, one-of-a-kind disc.