Blake And Tradition

'Skirting The River Road' is the second ECM recording by Scottish singer/songwriter Robin Williamson. It follows his critically praised solo album 'The Seed-At-Zero', which set texts by Dylan Thomas. The new album finds a thread of continuity that links three visionary poets - Walt Whitman, William Blake, and Henry Vaughan - and places their work in an improvisational context. There are also new songs by Williamson himself and a radical remake of an early classic, "Here To Burn". Williamson is usually considered a "folk" musician - his roots are certainly in the world's folk traditions - but he has also always been an experimentalist. The Incredible String Band (which he co-founded) was an autonomous, homemade 'avant-garde' unit in the 1960s, outside all the idioms but instinctively reaching for new forms, with Williamson's soaring voice leading the way.

Emanuele Filippi, from Udine, recently received a very prestigious endorsement from Enrico Rava, who described him as “one of the best pianists of the new generation”. At U&J, accompanied by Canadian saxophonist Seamus Blake. The repertoire, entirely original, has an intimate character, refined sonorities and intense expressive sensitivity and nuances deriving from the tradition of contemporary jazz, classical and pop music. Emanuele Filippi has collaborated with important musicians such as: Fabrizio Bosso, Seamus Blake, Soweto Kinch, Chris Morrissey, Jure Pukl; he lived in New York, where he studied with Fred Hersch and currently resides in Paris. A glimpse into new jazz scenarios…

Explores the unified science-religion of early humanity and the impact of Hermetic philosophy on religion and spirituality