Yelena Eckemoff Quartet - Desert (2018)

Personnel:
Yelena Eckemoff - Piano
Paul McCandless – Oboe
Arild Andersen – Bass
Peter Erskine- Drums

She was born and raised in Moscow, emigrated with her family to North Carolina, and knows of deserts mainly from books. But if you think Yelena Eckemoff’s lack of direct exposure to Bedouins, sand dunes, and dust storms would keep her from recording a work that evokes those things, you don’t know the power of this pianist-composer’s imagination.

Yelena Eckemoff has been imprinted by her Russian soul. With her modern, sometimes free-leaning approach and the weight and intensity her music attains, Eckemoff and her music are strikingly original.

Desert captures the Arabian Desert in all its mystery and natural allure not only with its 11 thematically linked compositions, but also with original poems, prose, and (as she frequently provides) album art.