Elina Duni's programme of songs of love and exile has been gathering momentum since 2017, when she singer began her musical collaboration with British guitarist Rob Luft. In 2018, following two highly acclaimed albums with her quartet for ECM, Duni issued her most intimate recording to date entitled Partir, an entirely solo album featuring songs of love, loss, and leaving, produced under the direction of label-founder Manfred Eicher. Her new album, A Time To Remember, is a continuation of the special synergy that inhabited her acclaimed 2020 release, Lost Ships  (a Presto Jazz Recording of the Year), which finds her regrouping with that album’s quartet of Luft, Matthieu Michel on flugelhorn and Fred Thomas on percussion and piano.

What compelled you to return to the studio and reprise your excellent work on Lost Ships?

Well, it was the fact that we wanted to go further with the sound of the quartet. For some months together with Rob [Luft], I stayed in the South Sinai desert by the Red Sea. This also inspired us with some new songs, some new sounds. It was a kind of logical way to go back to the studio and finish the work of Lost Ships. For me, A Time To Remember is somehow fuller; it has something more whole in it. Lost Ships is just the beginning of the journey. 

What would you say, then, are the main similarities and differences between the two records?

Lost Ships, for me, has two different parts. There's the first part, for quartet, then there’s a second part, with some songs as a duo. It's cut-in-two – you have two stories, whilst A Time To Remember is more of a whole story. The quartet’s playing is fuller: I have the feeling that we are breathing at the same moment; the same breath, together. There is one duo-piece at the end, but the rest is really just the quartet at its full potential. I would say the flugelhorn is also more present and, also, the composition and songs are more finished. They're more ripe. It’s more cinematic than Lost Ships.

You’ve mentioned your travels, but was there anything else that helped you to grow and expand this vision?

You can feel the influence of nature or the presence of the water element in the album as well… Sometimes, just the way that the guitar plays arpeggios, it suggests how water flows in ‘A Time To Remember’, for example. Or, with ‘Whispers of Water’, which literally talks about free-diving and how amazing it is to discover this underwater world. So, I would say there are some natural elements – of course, Lost Ships was all about the water as well. This is something I think is a bridge between the two albums. This experience with nature was very, very important to us and brought us to [the album’s] essence. I feel that A Time To Remember is more about the songs than about solos or virtuosity. It's more about being at the service of the music. [It’s] more accomplished in its storytelling. 

How did you put these stories together?

Well, the process is very different for all of the songs. Sometimes, it's just a story I want to tell. Sometimes, Rob comes to me with some chords and I'm like, “Oh, yes, these chords could fit this story. Let's work on it.” It all depends on different inputs. For example, ‘Send In The Clowns’ by Stephen Sondheim. We were playing as a duo in the days after he had died and Rob told me, “Come on, let's play something from him.” I didn't know the song, so we spent the day in the hotel, listening to the Frank Sinatra version and learning it… Then, in the evening, we performed it in concert and said, “Wow, we actually love this song!” It's different things, you know, that life brings you and what you make of them – it's always like that. You can spend all day searching for some inspiration and nothing comes, then, the next day, ten ideas come! You have to take it as it comes, for sure.

What made you want to include traditional folk songs from your homeland alongside your own original material?

Well, they are part of my identity. And, I would say my identity is multiple – the Albanian folk songs, the French songs, the jazz standards and also my own compositions – since the first album I ever did under my own name, Baresha, with my old quartet in 2008, which was a bit of a similar kind of patchwork of different things that I liked. I still want to keep that, because to me, it is very, very important. It's part of my nature, it's part of my identity and it's part of everything that I like. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music every day that inspire me as well.

Can you tell us more about how this affects your practice as an artist and performer?

I've been singing for 15 years now. For that time, I've been singing a lot in Albanian and also digging into Albanian folk music. And, I will say, it has become a little bit of my landmark, this mix between Albanian folk songs and jazz. I also think that I've grown musically through this experience with Albanian music, in my voice as well. Which means that today, when I'm singing the American Songbook, my point of view will be very different from 15 years ago when I just finished jazz school and had absolutely no experience with Albanian music. I found my voice through Albanian music and, now, I can sing in lots of other languages. I can come back to jazz standards and finally have the feeling that they're mine, or that I have something special to say, because I am very critical of myself(!) 

If I'm not sure about something then I would not publish it if I think that it’s not the time. It's like ‘First Song’, which I've been singing for 15 years as well. But never until one year ago, when we recorded it, did I feel that I was ready to do it, or that I was ready to give it to the world, because I didn't feel that I had something new to add to it or that I had my own way of doing it yet. Because, when you cover something or when you're singing a standard, well, you have to add something special to it – something of yourself. This can take a long, long time... and I think this took me a long time! So, I had to go through the Balkan music and Albanian folk music route. Actually, this is my fifth album on ECM, but, all in all, under my name it is my eleventh album.

Speaking of ECM, could you give us some insight as to your experience of working with this prestigious label?

My collaboration with ECM started in 2012 with my quartet. And, of course, it has influenced me a lot, because this was the moment where I said to myself, ‘it has to become more – there has to be more of a vision.’ Until then, I used to sing in lots of different languages, [I explored] Balkan music, but also my jazz interest. I said to myself that I had to focus on Albanian music because I had the feeling that there had to be a concept coming together, with an album on ECM. So, I just focused on Albanian music and it came naturally. When this first album came out and I met Manfred [Eicher], I was, of course, very honoured to be in front of such a great figure of jazz – especially if you're into jazz! Some of my first jazz albums ever were ECM albums, so my taste actually grew with them. At the same time, I just loved the way he would react to music when he was happy about it; he had this happiness of a child. It was very touching to see someone who was still so moved by music and to whom music would bring so much joy. And, he also was a good producer, in the sense that if you were lost somewhere, or a take wasn’t coming out the way you would like it to, then he would just say two or three words that would put you back on the right track. 

So, it was a great experience to work with him and to see the album as a moment in time, which represents that special moment in your life. And then to make a difference between the album and the same songs’ life, because they continue living and to develop. They don't sound the same if you’ve only played them for one or two years. Sometimes, they'll get faster, sometimes, they'll get slower. Sometimes, you'll change something here, something there. But the album, it's really like a moment suspended in time. And I think that's also the beauty of it, you know, like these photographs when they're clipped online.

The label has a reputation for having a quick turnaround in terms of their output – I presume this was the case for A Time To Remember?

Yes, but it's also quicker to do that. It's not like a pop album; it's two days of recording and one day of mixing – and that's it. So, you’d better be ready! When you are there, you’d better know what's gonna happen and how you're going to do things. I've been recording the ECM albums at La Buissonne, which is an amazing studio in the south of France, near to Avignon, with the sound engineer Gérard de Haro. He is also a big part of this sound, as well as the magic that happened during the sessions, because it's very important to have someone that you totally trust, as well. So, there’s Manfred and there is also Gérard – that has been a great combo for me; a great duo.

Not to mention your fellow musicians, of course. How did it feel returning to the studio with this lineup – was there a more novel fluency the second time around than there was before?

It was more flowing, the second album of this quartet. In Lost Ships, we might have had some diverse opinions, while I think that with A Time To Remember, everything was clear – it was like breathing together at the same time, like I said; I really had this feeling. There was not much to say, but just to play the music. So, this was really good, it was really a great feeling.

I gathered a great sense of emotional sincerity from the album, despite my unfamiliarity with much of the language you were singing in. I wonder if others have spoken to you about this?

No, not until now, but I am very happy to hear that, because this is also the feeling I have when I listen to albums that I really like! I think what might touch us as listeners is the way things are said, how authentic that is, or how maybe it just gets to the essentials… Perhaps what has touched you and what also touches me when I listen to music that really goes is that I have the feeling it's an old friend, like when I listen to João Gilberto, for example, with his guitar. It’s just so bare and so essential, it feels like a friend that has always been there. The mission of this album was exactly that – to be at the service of the songs, with no ego, just trying to be as real as possible.