Hymn For Life

Marc Bernstein, Sinne Eeg and Co. have with sensuous textures, created a monstrously beautiful vocal jazz album.

The resident American jazz saxophonist and bass-clarinetist, Marc Bernstein, has repeatedly shined on his previous albums, and he does it yet again on his new album, Hymn For Life, which is alluringly beautiful and melodic. A feature of the album is the airy presence, and very woody sounding bass clarinet that clings sensually up to Sinne Eeg's almost as woody vocals, which on this occasion seem kind of smokey, in a very cool way.

One could get the impression that Eeg was a black singer with decades of vocal experience and an established physiological gravity. Especially in The Windmills of Your Mind, where you sense warmth and darkness as well as strong gravity. After almost six and a half minutes in the company of Bernstein's bass clarinet and Eeg vocals - the listener is left utterly in a spiritual trance.

On other tunes such as; Wand'ring and Hymn To Life, Bernstein and Eeg are joined by drummer Rakalam Bob Moses, pianist Jacob Anderskov and bassist Jonas Westergaard. Their joint efforts on these tunes leaves the listener just as hypnotized. They are euphony and sensuous texture united. More complex, predominantly instrumental tracks like Kirk & Pepper and Neil's Birds just reinforces the impression that Bernstein and his Good People are a perfect complex constellation.