Dallëndyshe (The Swallow) is the second ECM album by the singer Elina Duni and her quartet, a set of songs of love and exile drawn mostly from Albanian tradition. Born in Tirana and raised in Switzerland, Duni sings in Albanian with a jazz group that treats each song as a story to be told. Ten of the twelve songs are traditional. After the darker Matanë Malit, she hears this record as lighter and more rhythmic, at moments close to "a trance-like propulsion".
The quartet is completed by the pianist Colin Vallon, a fellow student at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, the double bassist Patrice Moret and the drummer Norbert Pfammatter. All the arrangements are credited to the group. The album was recorded in July 2014 at Studios La Buissonne in Pernes-les-Fontaines, in the south of France, with Gérard de Haro as engineer and Manfred Eicher as producer. The booklet carries Duni's notes and English translations of the lyrics. Duni has said she is lucky to work with "these subtle musicians who help me to bring out the poetry".
Two songs have named authors: the opening Fëllënza (The Partridge), on words by Muharrem Gurra, and Sytë (Eyes), by Isak Muçolli and made famous by Nexhmije Pagarusha. On the traditional Kur të pashë an a cappella opening builds into an intense uptempo piece with piano and drums close behind. The last two songs look to the diaspora, Ti ri ti ti klarinatë to the Arvanites of Greece and the title track to the Arbëresh of Italy, sung over piano alone.
Writing in Songlines, Kim Burton heard "a very quiet, gentle exploration" that sets the songs "against shifting drones and modal chords", with rhythms slipping in and out of time. Paddy Kehoe of RTÉ Ten found Vallon's piano "intimately connected with the rueful expressiveness of the Tirana-born singer", pointing to Ylberin and Unë në kodër, ti në kodër. Several German-language critics stressed the trance-like pull of the repeated lines, and in Jazzpodium, Jörg Konrad heard the trio around Vallon give a lesson in restrained yet original accompaniment.
This is the CD edition of ECM 2401, released in April 2015.
