ECM 2026: Savina Yannatou & Arcanum

Savina Yannatou, voice
Lamia Bedioui, voice
Primavera en Salonico:
Kostas Vomvolos, kanonaki (quanun), accordion
Harris Lambrakis, nay
Kyriakos Gouventas, violin
Michalis Siganidis, double bass
Dine Doneff, percussion

Arcanum:
Arve Henriksen, trumpet
Trygve Seim, saxophone
Anders Jormin, double bass
Markku Ounaskari, drums, percussion

Open to all kinds of new music drawn from jazz, European folk forms and contemporary classical ideas, NCH celebrates the trailblazing independent German label, ECM.

This special double-bill concert features two of ECM’s most exciting current projects - one from Greece and one from Scandinavia. The much-loved Greek singer Savina Yannatou presents her latest project while the other set comes from the new super-group Arcanum.

Greek singer Savina Yannatou’s ECM project Watersong revolves around the theme of water in its many manifestations. Water as a blessing, and a curse. A life-sustaining source, the medium of baptism and spiritual rebirth, and a mortal threat in the elemental fury of the storm. Shakespeare’s play The Tempest with the spirit Ariel’s song, “Full Fathom Five”, provided an inspirational starting point for this project, its imagery conveying the sea’s power to effect startling metamorphosis. The richness and the strangeness are embodied in the playing here, with percussionist Dine Doneff drawing ghostly harmonics from a bowed waterphone, while Savina freely interprets the 17th century melody of English composer and lutenist Robert Johnson. As ever, on Watersong Yannatou moves gracefully among a multiplicity of cultures and dialects, as she addresses music from Greek, Cypriot, Corsican, Spanish, Italian, English and Irish sources.

Lamia Bedioui, longtime collaborator of Savina Yannatou, weaves Mediterranean traditions into a powerful, emotional vocal journey.

The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari.  They’ve played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet.  Already hailed as a “Nordic supergroup” in some quarters, the designation hardly conveys the thoughtful, reflective quality of the improvising and the sensitivity of the interaction here, whether playing music composed in real time or taking a written theme to new places.

Presented by NCH

NCH presents this special series as part of the Cultural Programme for Ireland’s 2026 Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It is supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.