A frequent collaborator of a diverse array of artists – including Laurie Anderson, Jessika Kenney, Bill Frisell and Sunn O))) – New York composer/violist Eyvind Kang presents his first solo recording on viola d’amore, an instrument he came to explore during the pandemic. An Italian bowed instrument used primarily in the Baroque period, the viola d’amore has a set of sympathetic strings that create a resonance not unlike that of Indian classical instruments.
Drawing upon his prior study in spiritual jazz and Indian raga, Riparian is Kang’s self-created means of improvising within modes of his own devising – one that alternates between arco and pizzicato (bowing and plucking), giving the impression of an organic dialogue between the two.