Press

"This CD is a wonderful example of a succesful marrying of jazz and folk music."
Ann Alex, Bebop Spoken Here

"Reimagining and recontextualising some delightful melodic and harmonic material and itroducing it to a wider audience."
Robert Shore, Jazzwise

"For a taste of something other wordly, this could hardly be bettered."
Tim Stenhouse, Uk Vibe

"Like the best stories, it suggests there is more to come. Let’s hope so for we could do with a lot more music like this."
Peter Bacon, Jazzbreakfast

"Melancholic Joy"
John Ephland, Downbeat

"Once you enter into the enchanted sound world of "Matanë Malit", it's impossible to break free from it's spell"
Peter Quinn, Jazzwise

"An adventurous ensemble that here restrics to framing stark outlines for this mesmerizing album."
Thomas Conrad, Jazztimes

"This quartet definitely sounds like rising star material for ECM".
John Fordham, The Guardian

"You'll feel the heartbreak, longing, resilience and pride in Duni's enthralling vocals"
Absolute Sound

"An album that grabs hold of the head and heart so insidiously that it's almost impossible to let it go, Matanë Malit will hopefully introduces Duni and her superb group to the broader international audience they so richly deserve."
John Kelman, All about Jazz

"You don't have to understand Albanian to appreciate what's happening here: Starting with somber and often heavy music, Duni and her group wind up in a soaring, graceful realm all their own."
Tom Moon, NPR

"Quiet possibly Manfred Eicher's finest work as producer on any ECM project to date."
Critical Jazz

"The most haunting music that I have heard this year is “Matanë Malit” on ECM."
Barry Bassis, NY Resident

"A ravishing collection of Balkan folk themes transformed via a probing jazz sensibility."
Andrew Gilbert, Seattle Times Sunday

"At least after the fourth song, you too are defenseless and at the mercy of the magic of Elina Duni."Jazzthing"
Jazzthing

“The four embed old songs in jazz surroundings, clothe them, so-to-speak, anew and attain the most intensive, penetrating performance, one in which the impressive voice of Elina Duni radiates out even more.”
Concerto

“All in all, it is shocking how natural two worlds find a way to each other, and do this far from cliched Balkan jazz ... something ventured and one more gained.“
Klaus von Seckendorff, Jazzthetik

“One of the most beautiful discoveries of the European Jazz scene.”

Francisco Cruz, So Jazz

“Elina Duni... a singer of traditions and unexpected, original experiences.” 

Journal du dimanche

"….Elina Duni and her group mesmerize with a unique amalgam of Eastern European tradition transposed to a modern Jazz key, a group sensibility that goes far beyond singer and typical piano trio backup.” “….Her voice is a true instrument, with the sort of true musicality that is rare with singers.”“…This is lovely music, lovingly rendered. She shows that the singer and band formula need not rely on stale, endless reiterations of the past but can strike out on new roads that synthesize different styles and world sounds. Excellent.”
Grego Applegate Edwards. Cadence

“The young, Albanian singer Elina Duni’s debut album Baresha is beautiful enough to make you cry ....” “From Balkan beats, jazz song and chanson flair, Elina Duni conjures up a dream-like, passionate world of chamber music with her Swiss trio ....” “A great discovery”!Steffen Radlmaier, Nürnberger Nachrichten."
Steffen Radlmaier, Nürnberger Nachrichten

“...rarely does music touch the ear as Baresha does – as do the songs of the unknown Elina Duni, who transforms Albanian, Greek and Bulgarian songs into jazz on her first album, without selling them and herself under their real value.”
Konrad Heidkampf, Die Zeit

“The astonishment about the pure beauty, about this simultaneity of melancholy, euphoria and musical bravado in the music of this woman and her amazing band. Elina Duni is the singer’s name and her concert marked a much praised magical moment of this year’s Be-Jazz winter festival.”
Ane Hebeisen, Der Bund

“What a delightful contrast to all the Scandinavian singers, who blow down to us Middle Europeans in such large flocks! What the Albanian singer Elina Duni, who now lives in Geneva, does from the traditional songs of her homeland is simple, incomparable and quite original ....” “...an unbelievable, strong-voiced, enchanting and wonderful interpreter!”
Sven Thielmann, Stereoplay

“A debut album that has become a master stroke. The songs from Southern Europe meld with contemporary jazz patterns, as if they had never been separated.”
Urs Gilgen, Jazzeit

“From the very first moment one is ensnared. What this music says is important. And intimate like a diary. The pull of her voice creates a pact between singer and public: this here is holy and that will remain our secret!”
Sven Sorgenfrey, Financial Times Deutschland