Private City

John Surman has made a handful of solo records for ECM, but none so intimate as this, not least of all for its title (naming the ballet for which some of this music was written). Using multi-tracking to his melodic benefit, he creates far-reaching atmospheres with very little means. “Portrait Of A Romantic” and “Not Love Perhaps” are the two dance pieces, the second of which pairs his sequencer with a soprano of folk-like quality. No one plays the bass clarinet quite like Surman does on “Levitation,” and his rarely-heard recorder exudes an antique loveliness.