With sayr: salt | thirst, the first release in his new series of recordings for solo string instrument, Finnish-born guitarist, Arabic oud player and composer Jussi Reijonen offers an intimate, meditative counterpoint to the ambitious 5-movement suite heard on his acclaimed 2022 large ensemble work Three Seconds | Kolme Toista.

sayr: salt | thirst is an exploration of the small, the simple and the sparse; the rugged earthy; the gnarly unpretty; and most of all, of memories of roots and branches; of bare feet in soil; and of paths less – or differently – predetermined.

Rooted in a metaphorical reframing of the concept of “sayr” as found in Arabic music — a musical pathway or unfolding, literally “course” or “motion” —, this solo improvisation becomes a spontaneous exploration through an acoustemological memory palace: a pathway of memory recalled and reimagined through music.

1. salt [16:59]
2. thirst [23:01]
3. salt: sarvi [5:57]
4. thirst: koto [6:18]

Using a set of pre-composed musical gestures as loci or touchstones — like rooms in a memory palace — Reijonen opens this 4-track album on the austere, yet cannily cultivated, organically sewn 17 minute salt and then we get the elegantly humble, masterfully sculpted 23 minute opus thirst, before we are brought forth some thoughtful musical intricacies shown to the fore within salt: sarvi, the work coming to a close on the gently fervent, at times, artfully appealing and rhythmically intriguing at others, thirst: koto.

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