Info

Maria Neckam - voice
Mika Pohjola - piano

Das Wörterbuch, The Dictionary, is a spontaneous thesaurus in improvised expression. The set includes some of Neckam's original compositions and on-the-spot interpretations of American Songbook classics, My Funny Valentine and Like Someone in Love. As a whole, Das Wörterbuch is an experience for careful listeners, who like to think outside the box.

Das Wörterbuch is a collaboration between Austrian expatriate singer-composer Maria Neckam and acclaimed Finnish pianist Mika Pohjola. Maria Neckam has never played it safe, especially with her writing and her vocal interpretations, but with Das Wörterbuch this New York-based artist is really flying without a net. She has found the perfect improvisational partner in Pohjola, whose earlier piano-vocalist duo outings included Sophie Duner, Lina Nyberg and Jill Walsh. With fearless abandon, Neckam and Pohjola roam freely through a series of spontaneous, contemplative modal sketches, occasionally coloring completely outside the lines. Neckam''s composition, Wenn es dunkel wird (roughly translated, When it gets dark) is compelling, taking the listener across a mind-field of introspective rumination. With a bit more structure than some of the other tracks on this release, it is a reasonable jumping-off point for those who are just sticking their big toes into the chilly waters of the avant-garde; to an open mind already swimming in its currents, the Weillian imagery of this piece opens into a dreamy, existential garden shrouded in the encroaching fog of twilight.