Duo Aya - 2025 - Cycles

(53:41; Neuma Records)

Track list:
1. Reunion Dance [Ney Rosauro] 4:42
2. Cycles [Evan Williams] 6:07
3. Kembang Suling - Bali [Gareth Farr] 3:55
4. Kembang Suling - Japan [Gareth Farr] 3:35
5. Kembang Suling - India [Gareth Farr] 3:20
6. Wildflowers [Paul Millette] 7:34
7. Makoto Shinohara: Kassouga 7:13
8. Wood Wide Web II [Miriama Young] 9:22
9. Water Planet [Fumihiro Ono] 7:53

Line-up:
Rachel Woolf - flute
Makana Jimbu - marimba
with:
UTSA Chamber Singers


Duo Aya is a multinational collaboration consisting of US musician Rachel Woolf and Japanese musician Makana Jimbu, with the flute and the marimba as their respective instruments of choice. In the spring of 2025 the released their debut album "Cycles" through US label Neuma Records.

This is an album that will be something of a feast to enjoy for those who enjoy the flute as well as the marimba, and obviously those who enjoy the sound of both of those instruments will find this to be quite the enthralling experience indeed.

The different compositions explored does turn out to have a fairly uniform sound and expression, presumably due to the manner in which the instrumentalists play their chosen instruments here. But there is an obvious difference in mood and atmosphere from one creation to the next, and the patterns, scales and arrangements explored also come with a fair degree of variation. The sound and combination of the instruments ties it all together to become a more uniform experience though, if that is a description that makes any sense. 

Playful and uplifting creations is a bit of a recurring element here, with quite a few instances of more careful and longing passages at hand too. Sometimes these moods are explored in a more purebred manner, while on other occasions we get a bit of an ebb and flow between these two main variations. In between them we get some instances of a more firm and dramatic delivery, but also instances and displays where the instrumentalists opts for a more toned down expression as well as parts where one or the other of the musicians have a more dominant role or supply the only audible instrument motif. We also get a little bit of an influx of more distinct exotic, world music inspired elements - besides the marimba itself - in the three part composition Kembang Suling.

As far as style and orientation in general is concerned, this is an album I can't really place in any specific category. But in my layman perception of music I'd say that there is a liberal influx of elements from classical music just as much as from world music, and that the compositions explored here may well attract listeners from both of those music demographics.  

From my personal perspective I found the concluding 'Water Planet' to be the most intriguing experience on this production, where the addition of electronic sounds and effects expanded the boundaries of the landscapes explored with borderline mystical and futuristic sounds, moods and atmospheres. An expansion that also provides us with a careful and enthralling kind of contrast between the more clinical electronic sounds and the more organic sounds of the flute and the marimba.

I don't know how many albums we have out there that combine the sound of the flute and the marimba, as well as how many of them that explore compositions in the manner that Woolf and Jimbu go about it on this production. It is a most charming affair though, existing somewhere in the borderland between classical music and world music. I suspect that those who have a tendency to enjoy such ventures in general and have a fondness for the flute and the marimba as instruments in particular should find this to be quite the rewarding experience.

Olav M. Björnsen, June 2025

Links:
https://www.duoaya.com/
https://neumarecords.org/