Modern chamber-jazz-art-songs illuminated by high-flying improvisations! The Poetry of Earth project is very close to Iversen’s heart. The songs are contemplating the human existence and our relationship with nature and are all composed to English and Danish poems, from Romantic to contemporary, set to a unique combination of extended composition and jazz improvisation. The music was conceived while Iversen spent time at an artists’ residency in a thousand year old cloister on the cliffs of Italy’s Amalfi coast. The Poetry of Earth musicians are world-renowned as improvisers, and have each developed a personal sound and identity that they contribute selflessly for the realization of this singular music.
Line up: Dan Tepfer - piano, Anne Mette Iversen - acoustic bass & compositions, John Ellis - sax, flute, clarinet & bass clarinet, Christine Skou - vocal and Maria Neckam - vocal.
"The poetry of earth is ceasing never" - John Keats
The Poetry of Earth project uses poetry and music to explore the notion that when we learn to be present and in the moment, we are open for the inspiration, and the exchange that nature offers us. To contemplate that our experiences (joy, sorrow, pain, etc), also exist in the natural world around us, enriches our existence.
The press on Poetry of Earth:
"Anne Mette Iversen brings instrumental dexterity as well as sharp compositional and band-leading skills with her." - The New Yorker
"It's easy to classify this new recording from bassist/composer Anne Mette Iversen as "Chamber Jazz" but the 2-CD "Poetry of Earth" is really a splendid amalgam of "art" song, well-developed melodic and harmonic ideas, glorious musicianship and poems (in both English and Danish) that speak to the human condition through observations on nature." - Richard B. Kamins, Step Tempest
"A brightly creative concept album full of excellent, interesting music." - Paul Weiderman, Pasatiempo
"Eine wahre Perle" - Volker Doberstein, Jazz Podium
