Pedro Melo Alves: In Igma

Avant Jazz / Free Improvisation / Avant-Garde
premiera polska: 2020-08-03
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Portugalia
opakowanie: kartonowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com - ocena * * * * 1/2:
Laureat Bernardo Sassetti Composition Award z 2017 roku, perkusista i kompozytor Pedro Melo Alves pochodzi z Portugalii, kraju na rubieżach Europy, który dochował się jednej z najbardziej interesujących współcześnie scen muzycznych. Rodrigo Amado, Luís Lopes, Marcelo Dos Reis, Susana Santos Silva i Luis Vicente to nazwiska, które fan współczesnej kreatywnej muzyki znać musi, a to tylko najważniejsi z przedstawicieli portugalskiej sceny muzycznej.

"In igma" można czytać jako odmianę łacińskiego słowa "ignis" - które oznacza "ogień/światło". W warstwie fonicznej jest też nawiązaniem do słowa "enigma".

Pedro Melo Alves powołał do życia zespół "in igma" na zamówienie organizatorów festiwalu Jazz no Parque 2019. Po festiwalowym koncercie zespół w przestrzeni studyjnej nagrał materiał na płytę, która została właśnie wydana nakładem Clean Feed Records.

Nieograniczona wyobraźnia Pedro Melo Alvesa namnożyła wiele niesamowitych muzycznych pomysłów i zaskakujących zwrotów akcji. Mamy do czynienia z współczesna klasyczna muzyką kameralną, w wielkiej części skomponowaną, z zdumiewającym komponentem abstrakcji i improwizacji. Eve Risser na fortepianie, Mark Dresser na kontrabasie, Abdul Moimeme na gitarze, Alves na perkusjonaliach, do tego trzy zjawiskowe głosy - Aubrey Johnson, Beatriz Nunes i Mariana Dionísio. Razem lepią wszechświat dźwięków, który jest w jakiś znany im tylko sposób spójny i przekonujący. Muzyka Pedro Melo Alves In igma napiera na słuchacza w pozytywnym znaczeniu tego słowa, atakując naszą świadomość świadomość i zadomawiając się w niej. W żadnym momencie nie uciekają się przy tym do tanich chwytów i nie epatują tym, co łatwo porusza słuchaczy bez względu na walor artystyczny muzycznej narracji.

W liner notes czytamy "In Igma to mieszanka tekstur, przeciwstawiająca się wielowarstwowemu holofonicznemu użyciu ludzkiego głosu, z surowością instrumentów smyczkowych i perkusyjnych. To mocno kinematograficzna muzyka, która żyje między światłem a ciemnością, konkretem a abstrakcją"
Copyright © 1996-2020 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved

All About Jazz * * * * 1/2:
Since his remarkable debut as a leader in 2017, Omniae Ensemble (Nischo Records), drummer and composer Pedro Melo Alves has quickly established himself as a vital force in the Portuguese jazz scene. With an uncompromising sensibility equally committed to avant-garde jazz and contemporary classical music, not to mention the jazz-rock experimentalism of his work with Rite of Trio, Alves' hybridity is his calling card, and it's a crucial characteristic of the new breed of creative jazz coming out of Portugal. Fellow mavericks like Luís Lopes, Marcelo Dos Reis, Susana Santos Silva and Luis Vicente are just a handful of the pathbreaking artists expanding the boundaries of the music, and there's no doubt that with In Igma, Alves should be added to their number.

Whereas the Omniae Ensemble bridges the realms of jazz and classical formalism, In Igma is best characterized as contemporary classical chamber music. Largely composed, with layers of abstraction and emotional complexities that defy easy description, the music casts a transfixing spell from beginning to end. Evoking both the Latin ignis for fire/brightness and a pun on "enigma," the suite utilizes a superb collection of musicians, including three vocalists— Aubrey Johnson, Beatriz Nunes, and Mariana Dionísio—and a set of leading-edge avant-gardists: bassist Mark Dresser, pianist Eve Risser, and guitarist Abdul Moimeme. Together, they craft a sound-world that is somehow both cohesive and expansive, with a pervasive mood of mystery that exerts an irresistible pull.

Dissonance opens the album, as "Crack" indeed suggests a fissure, with the three singers' wordless vocals casting long, sustained notes in harmonic tension, as the rest of the musicians create a bed of unsettled discontent. Pulse is absent, with Melo serving as a colorist alongside Dresser's huge arco sweeps and Risser's prepared piano musings. Moîmeme's contributions offer additional texture, his assorted electronic and acoustic effects serving as percussive or tonal complements. With soaring passages of astonishing range and stunning technique to spare, the vocalists are usually at the center of the music, but never to the point of overwhelming the other musicians. "In Igma I—Code" sees the vocalists contending with each other in a kind of fragmented conversation, attempting desperately to connect through their divergent expressions, but the rest of the ensemble is part of the attempt as well, drawing from the vocalists' energy and expanding upon their efforts. Even during the heights of abstraction, as in moments like these, the music's taut focus lends a solidity and purpose that holds the suite together.

It is a demanding and bracing listening experience, yet not without episodic transcendence and beauty. Risser's tender ruminations are at the fore of "In Igma II—On Meaning," as the vocalists usher in an almost pastoral calm, before Dresser's ominous thunderings presage more unrest and the music reaches another peak of tumult. And the suite's culmination, "In Igma III—On Void" possesses an ecstatic fervor, with the ensemble attaining a crescendo of impassioned power before finally, gradually, withdrawing into exhausted oblivion, a cathartic release at the end of an invigorating sonic journey.
By TROY DOSTERT
Editor's info:
Commissioned by the Portuguese Jazz no Parque series (Serralves Foundation, with Rui Eduardo Paes as the curator) in 2019, In Igma, the ensemble, and the opus now released, is a particularly accomplished example of the equating mind of drummer/percussionist and composer Pedro Melo Alves, who is more and more known for assembling musicians you don’t expect to see together and with them to conceive something that comes from very different musical sources. Besides Melo Alves himself, the instrumentalists are Mark Dresser, Eve Risser and Abdul Moimeme and there’s three singers in (inter)action,Aubrey Johnson, Beatriz Nunes and Mariana Dionísio. The resulting music emanates from the interstices between jazz, contemporary music and experimentalism, in the process becoming this beautiful and quite intriguing object, described as a «quest for what is most primary and prior” and an «exploration of fresh influences, coming naturally from a broad aesthetic horizon».

muzycy:
Aubrey Johnson voice
Beatriz Nunes voice
Mariana Dionísio voice
Eve Risser piano
Mark Dresser contrabass
Abdul Moimeme electric guitar and objects
Pedro Melo Alves drums and percussion

utwory:
1. Crack
2. In Igma I - Code
3. Organum
4. In Igma II – On Meaning
5. In Igma III - On Void

wydano: 2020-07
nagrano: Recorded by Joao P. Miranda, at Salao Brazil, Coimbra, on the 10th and 11th of July, 2019

more info: www.cleanfeed-records.com
more info2: www.pedromeloalves.com