Mountain Call
Miroslav Vitous
Mountain Call is Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous’s first album as a leader on ECM in a decade, released March 27, 2026, and recorded in his Prague studio between 2003 and 2010. Conceived as an “artist self‑portrait,” it gathers 18 relatively concise pieces that move between duo, trio, and larger‑ensemble settings, prominently featuring the late French clarinetist Michel Portal and drummer Jack DeJohnette, along with guests such as Esperanza Spalding, Bob Mintzer, Gary Campbell, Gerald Cleaver, and members of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Across these configurations, Vitous uses his double bass as a central narrative voice, sometimes melodic and singing, sometimes almost orchestral in weight, threading together material that ranges from free improvisation to chamber‑like writing and subtly layered studio constructions.
Roughly half the album consists of duos with Portal on clarinet and bass clarinet, which open and punctuate the program and are often described as telepathic dialogues: brief, vividly etched exchanges where Portal’s pliant lines entwine with Vitous’s pizzicato and arco explorations. Other standout moments include rhythmically charged pieces like “Tribal Dance” and “Epilog,” where Vitous and DeJohnette reconnect with the eruptive energy of their earlier ECM collaborations, and the multi‑part “Evolution” suite, which places DeJohnette and Bob Mintzer’s bass clarinet inside a more expansive, almost cinematic framework of bass and orchestral chords. Critics emphasize how Vitous integrates live playing with orchestral samples and subtle studio processing—not as gimmicks but as compositional extensions—so that the album, despite being assembled from different sessions and ensembles, unfolds like a single, slowly revealing landscape, culminating in the haunting title track whose soaring arco bass and dark clarinet sonorities give Mountain Call its quietly monumental, contemplative character.
Mountain Call
Miroslav Vitous
Mountain Call is Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous’s first album as a leader on ECM in a decade, released March 27, 2026, and recorded in his Prague studio between 2003 and 2010. Conceived as an “artist self‑portrait,” it gathers 18 relatively concise pieces that move between duo, trio, and larger‑ensemble settings, prominently featuring the late French clarinetist Michel Portal and drummer Jack DeJohnette, along with guests such as Esperanza Spalding, Bob Mintzer, Gary Campbell, Gerald Cleaver, and members of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Across these configurations, Vitous uses his double bass as a central narrative voice, sometimes melodic and singing, sometimes almost orchestral in weight, threading together material that ranges from free improvisation to chamber‑like writing and subtly layered studio constructions.
Roughly half the album consists of duos with Portal on clarinet and bass clarinet, which open and punctuate the program and are often described as telepathic dialogues: brief, vividly etched exchanges where Portal’s pliant lines entwine with Vitous’s pizzicato and arco explorations. Other standout moments include rhythmically charged pieces like “Tribal Dance” and “Epilog,” where Vitous and DeJohnette reconnect with the eruptive energy of their earlier ECM collaborations, and the multi‑part “Evolution” suite, which places DeJohnette and Bob Mintzer’s bass clarinet inside a more expansive, almost cinematic framework of bass and orchestral chords. Critics emphasize how Vitous integrates live playing with orchestral samples and subtle studio processing—not as gimmicks but as compositional extensions—so that the album, despite being assembled from different sessions and ensembles, unfolds like a single, slowly revealing landscape, culminating in the haunting title track whose soaring arco bass and dark clarinet sonorities give Mountain Call its quietly monumental, contemplative character.