My 40 Favorite Albums of 2025, part 1
Tangent Mek, Immutable Traveler (Montaigne Noire)
French violinist Anouck Genthon, Greek flutist Marina Tantanozi, and Finnish viola de gamba player Anna-Kaisa Meklin are all based in Switzerland where they came together to form Tangent Mek, a trio of stunning versatility and lyric beauty. They toggle between folk material and contemporary music on Immutable Traveler, rejecting any notion of stylistic purity. Sometimes it reminds me of the folk explorations taken by Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker in their Canti di Guerra project, when they all sing lovely melodies, while elsewhere they conjure sonic worlds that the listener can inhabit, such “Say it Clear, Say it Loud,” where the layers of sustained tones generate a lush physical sensation, as one line or another seems to move across the foundation, suggesting a beguiling three-dimensionality.