Rites (LP)

"This is the best work for some time from one of the most individual and innovative of all contemporary jazz musicians. Garbarek is one of the few performers to have a completely distinctive sound and style and, regardless of trends, has steadfastly pursued his own creative instincts. 'Rites' fuses a huge range of jazz, ethnic and contemporary influences into an extraordinary cohesive whole.
- Tim Payne, BBC Music Magazine (1999)

Jan Garbarek's powerful double-album Rites, with the Norwegian saxophone master in the company of his long-time collaborators Rainer Brüninghaus and Eberhard Weber as well as percussionist Marilyn Mazur and electronics artist Bugge Wesseltoft, was considered both a magnum opus and evocative retrospective of Garbarek's full artistic breadth when it was originally released in 1998, and it still holds up as a successful compendium, a wholly original, modern musical statement today. There are abundant references to scattered musics of the world spread across the wide idiomatic landscape of the record, from Norway to India, as well as a setting - for voices and saxophone - of a Native American poem, and the surprise inclusion of Jansug Kakhidze's "The moon over Mtatsminda", sung by its composer with the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra. Reviewing the double album at the time of its release, BBC Music's Ian Carr called it "a masterwork and a sort of summary of his development to date, drawing together all the disparate strands of his experience into diverse and compelling new syntheses. Jan Garbarek never ceases to amaze and delight. He's not only one of the most original and consummate saxophonists of the last three decades, but also a fine composer and a music-maker whose vision seems to expand constantly."

Released as part of ECM's Luminessence series, Rites arrives on vinyl for the very first time, issued in a tip-on gatefold jacket with a comprehensive booklet featuring texts and photographs and all the original material from the initial CD release.