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Sunday, March 22, 2015

Bande à Part - Caixa-Prego (Creative Sources, 2014) ****

By Stef  

To co-create improvised music that is not only coherent, but that is also captivating and beautiful, remains an amazing thing of magic. And here we can listen to this musical magic from a Portuguese trio that deserves wider attention : Joana Guerra plays cello, Ricardo Ribeiro bass and soprano clarinets, and Carlos Godinho objects (wooden boxes, plates, a bicycle bell, balloons, billiard balls and sticks).

Their music is measured and open-ended. One instrument takes the lead, and when the others join they add color, depth and expand. As simple as that. Or not? The result is intimate and restless, calm and intense, familiar and unsettling, moving between odd sounds and sometimes repetitive phrases as the backbone for the piece, as on the haunting "Chapa 3", the centerpiece of the album.

The trio manages to create a very warm and surprising album, elegant and gentle but with strong character, less focused on individual sounds than it is on group exploration of atmosphere and texture, skilfully navigating between lyricism, silence and adventure.

Listen and buy from Bandcamp.


1 comments:

Steve P. said...

I am certainly no music critic, but I thoroughly enjoyed this album. It is uncomplicated and very easy to listen to. I hope they make more albums in the future. This is well worth checking out.