Lustrum Arkady Shilkloper & Vadim Neselovskyi

• 1 Get up and Go 08:16
• 2 Song for Vera 08:13
• 3 Station Taiga 06:10
• 4 Songs My Parents Sing 05:24
• 5 Kornblume 04:38
• 6 Intrada 09:19
• 7 Almost December 06:36
• Total Runtime 48:36

Info for Lustrum

Lustrum is the second duo album to be released on Neuklang by the Russian Arkady Shilkloper (Horn) and the Ukranian Vadim Neselovskyi (Piano). The two have known each other since the then 19-year-old music student, Vadim, performed live for the first time with Arkady and the Moscow Art Trio in the ‘Domizil’ jazz club in Dortmund. It wasn’t until much later that the idea of forming a duo was born, which developed into a congenial cooperation between two outstanding musicians.

I found in Vadim an empathetic partner who is not only a good pianist but also a wonderful composer says Arkady Shilkloper. Vadim Neselovskyi adds: It’s a great feeling to perform with a musician whose recordings I listened to in my youth. Our duo makes it possible for me to develop further and to realise my musical visions. Arkady and I speak the same language.

The collaboration is highly inspiring for both and a fascinating process. According to Vadim, the natural limits of the French Horn and the Alphorn are sometimes hard for pianists to understand. But Arkady is such a virtuoso that anything is possible. It’s always most enjoyable to work on new material, to try out new registers on the Horn, to swap roles and to achieve something which at the outset appeared completely unachievable.

When playing together the musicians operate in different ways. Sometimes - such as with Almost December or Song for Vera - we change nothing at all and play the original, explains Arkady. Vadim continues: Then there are pieces like Intrada, which allow a great deal of freedom and which sound entirely different at each concert. In principle, each piece provides scope for adventures in sound, which are born out of the process of improvisation. I refer to our method as ‘Comprovisation’ - the combination of composition and improvisation. We try to break down the barriers between the two. says Arkady in summary.

Most composers have a personal story which forms a basis for their work. The idea for Get Up And Go came to Vadim from news broadcasts about world-wide wars and conflicts. He imagined a wounded soldier lying on the ground who, despite his pain and weakness, pulls himself together and battles for survival with all his remaining strength. On the other hand, Songs My Parents Sing is based on pleasant memories of his parents, who often sang Russian and Ukrainian songs together in their kitchen. The underlying theme comes from a song about an old coachman, which can be heard in its original form in the introduction and which then takes the listener along on a bumpy ride.

Almost December came to Vadim during a late-November stroll through the streets of Dortmund. In the late autumn, the spirit of Christmas was already in the air and one could sense the approaching year-end in the empty and quiet streets. The story behind Station Taiga is enchanting. At the end of my solo concerts I always ask the audience to call out random numbers between 1 and 8. I then create a melody using the numbers provided and improvise a short piece. I was once presented with the combination 8-7-2-4-3, which produced a most attractive Slavonic theme. I developed the improvisation further at home and it transformed into this dreamy, meditative composition, which also reflects my experiences of travelling through Siberia’s breathtakingly beautiful snowy forest.

Lustrum is a Latin term describing a period of 5 years in ancient Rome. Arkady Shilkloper and Vadim Neselovskyi have been playing together since 2011 and celebrated their 5-year anniversary in the year this recording was made. Hence the title of the album Lustrum, which also contains the words for Light and Delight - because the collaboration between the two musicians is characterised by their joie de vivre and the obvious delight they take in playing together.

Arkady Shilkloper, french horn, flugelhorn Vadim Neselovskyi, piano

Arkady Shilkloper
was born in 1956, in Moscow, Russia. He began to study playing alto horn at the age of six and switched to French horn in 1967. At the age of eleven he entered the Moscow Military Music School. One of most unusual Russian musicians, Arkady plays French horn, flugelhorn, alphorn and many more wind instruments that are unusual. From 1978 to 1985 he was a member of the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre. With this world-famous orchestra and as a member of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985 to 1989, he undertook numerous worldwide concert tours.

Since 1990 he has been a member of the Moscow Art Trio along with Misha Alperin and Sergey Starostin, occasionally playing in other formations as well.

Shilkloper played with Lionel Hampton, Elvin Jones, Lew Soloff and Herb Ellis. He also has worked with Pierre Favre, Louis Sclavis, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Jon Christensen, Bob Stewart. Since 1997, Arkady is part of two Russian trios: one with St. Petersburg’s best jazzmen– acoustic bassist Vladimir Volkov and piano player Andrei Kondakov, and the other with Vladimir Volkov and Sergei Starostin. In 2000, Arkady put together the Mauve Trio with Brazilian guitar player Alegre Correa and Austrian bassist Georg Breinschmid. Their debut album ‘Mauve’ (Quinton, 2002) was awarded the prestigious Hans Koller Prize of Austria as the ‘CD Of The Year’. Arkady Shilkloper gives concerts and master-classes around the world ( approx. 100 a year) in: Russia, Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, Panama, China, Korea, and Australia.

Vadim Neselovskyi
Critics have praised NY-based pianist/composer Vadim Neselovskyi for “extraordinary playing” (Los Angeles Times), “exceptional composition skills” (musicweb-international.com) and “feathery touch” (New York Times). While mostly known as one of the key members of multiple GRAMMY® winner Gary Burton’s Quintet, and as a featured pianist and composer on Burton’s Concord Records release “Next Generation,” Vadim is rapidly gaining reputation as a band leader, creating a “thrilling blend of classical and jazz” (jazzreview.com)

Vadim grew up in Odessa, Ukraine, where he was the youngest student to be accepted into the famous Odessa Conservatory, and then moved to Dortmund, Germany when he was 17 years old. Shortly after arriving in Germany, he established himself on the local jazz scene, taking part in the Dusseldorf Jazz Rally and Leipzig Jazz Days. After a few years he moved to the USA to further his studies at Berklee College of Music, where he was discovered by Gary Burton.

Before graduating from Berklee Vadim was asked to play and compose for a Berklee’s promotional recording produced by Pat Metheny. Four weeks after graduation he was playing with Gary Burton at the Blue Note in New York. Since June 2004 Vadim has been consistently touring the US, Europe and Japan in Gary Burton’s quintet.

Besides working actively as a sideman, Vadim is developing a name for himself as a solo artist. His CD “Spring Song,” that features two charismatic singers Vera Westera(NL) and Amanda Baisinger (US), received enthusiastic reviews.

“The four musicians around Neselovskyi, Brazilian Pedro Ito (drums,percussion), Russian Oleg Osenkov on bass, American Eric Bloom (trumpet) and heart-breaking voice of Amanda Baisinger (also USA) offer a skillful, multifaceted – accessible, challenging yet entertaining mixture of jazz, classical and world music. This is jazz, how it should be – sometimes neck-breaking angular, sometimes wonderfully melodic and always supported by the grooving bass…the feminine voice of Amanda Baisinger often reaches whirling heights and speeds. Everything fits to the sparkling piano sound of Neselovskyi.” (www.cdkritik.de)

Vadim’s work has been recognized with a number of recent awards. Most recently, in September 2010 he was named a Grand Prize Winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composers Competition. Vadim performed the winning composition, Grust (Sadness) with his trio at the Kennedy Center on Ocotober 4, 2010 as part of the Gala Concert, also featuring Herbie Hancock, Kurt Elling and Dianne Reeves. President Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama served as Honorary Chairs of the event.

“Garnering the $10,000 prize for his composition "Grust," which means ‘sadness' in Russian, Neselovskyi impressed with both the depth of his composition and a heartrending performance that stood out as an unquestionable highlight of the night.” (All About Jazz)

Just two weeks after the Prize Award Ceremony in Washington DC Vadim received another Award – Second Grand Prix (7.000 Euro) at the 5th Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition in Paris, France. Starting from 2011 he serves as an Assistant Professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.

This album contains no booklet.