Time was when it was a sax, but these days there's nothing that says ‘jazz’ quite so clearly as the presence of a shruti box among any hard-boppin' combo's instrumentation. Actually, that's not true. In some ways you might even say it's total nonsense or silly sarcasm. But in another way, it is true. Nothing says ‘contemporary-jazz-redefined-as-an-expanded-field-of-improv-based-musical-research-collapsing-traditional-boundaries-of-time-and-place’ as the presence of a shruti box (a kind of harmonium often deployed to provide a drone), and indeed of a Hardinger fiddle (an instrument native to Norway, with a fair resemblance to a violin but with a lot more strings). And this disc has them both, which makes it a total and very ‘now’ sort of jazz experience despite the fact it sounds a bit like a collection of chants, hymns and folk songs derived from Iceland, Norwegian and Swedish sources. Which it also is. The performance, recorded in a church (where else?) and produced and released by Manfred Eicher's ECM (who else?), has the feel of a sacred ritual, at once solemn and joyful.