Story and about the music: Young and active Argentine drummer and composer continue his journey as a leader with the adventuresome album, with clear jazz influences crossed by Argentinian folklore music, as well as Afro-American reminiscences.
Axel Filip's second album as a leader and composer.
Inspired by landscapes from his childhood in the woods, walking through trails to find rivers, waterfalls and being in communion with nature, Axel conceived this album by imagining each song as a path to a certain place, historic event, or feelings reminding of love, loneliness, and quietude. (more on Axel’s career at the end).
It's about half and half piano trio, with Mariano Sarra - piano (young pianist and composer with an original and fresh approach) and Flavio Romero - contrabass (Oscar Giunta SuperTrio, Minino Garay - one of the most virtuosic and busy bassists in Buenos Aires), and then with featured artists Pablo Passini on guitar, Milton Amadeo and Melina Moguilevsky in vocals and Juan Klas conducting a string quartet arrangement.
Axel is a super-active musician in the Buenos Aires scene, he has played and/or recorded with Camila Nebbia, Juan Cruz de Urquiza, Rodrigo Dominguez, Sol Liebeskind, Kenneth Jimenez, Fred Selva, Frederico Heliodoro, Andres Beeuwsaert, Ernesto Jodos, Jim Rotondi, Sergio Wagner, Juan P. Arredondo, Sebastian de Urquiza, Francisco LoVuolo, Hernan Jacinto, among others, recording more than 20 albums as a sideman.
1) “Repleto de raices” is the opening track, which starts with an exciting drums groove- that can be related to Candombe or Brazilian music- that is quickly joined by piano and bass, arriving at a more relaxed and melodic moment. That doesn’t last for so long, growing into a sequence of frenetic and irregular piano chords, played in unison with drums, which serves as a platform to a bass improvisation by virtuoso bassist Flavio Romero.
A vibrant piano solo by the great Mariano Sarra takes place afterward, leading to a brief moment of block chords only played by him, and the whole ensemble is given entrance for a varied reexposure, with a more extended bass improvisation, evolving to a wild unison ending.
This song was inspired by massive tree roots coming off the ground, making the ground difficult to walk and creating exotic figures in the ground.
2) The second track is “A la inconsciencia”, a song that invites the listener to dive into a deep immersion into subconsciousness, evoking melancholic emotions.
It starts right away with the piano trio featuring the raw yet velvety voice of Milton Amadeo, with a slow groove that flows between 4/4 to 3/4 measures seamlessly, asking the listener to “empty his/her mind and wake up”. It continues with an instrumental bridge and voice chorus, reminding of a chacarera (Argentinian folkloric rhythm) that is followed by a second verse.
We hear afterward an interlude with a darker atmosphere, which takes place with a unison ostinato played by bass and piano with a ternary feel, where a 5/8 superimposed feel played by the drums and right hand on the piano is added, creating a playful tension to land on a perfectly constructed melodic piano solo by Mariano Sarra, using the first section of the song as an improvisation platform. The piano improvisation slowly walks us again into the interlude’s darker atmosphere, adding a lot of mystery with the use of intrepid lines, until the whole ensemble stops for a second to bring back Milton’s voice and retake the song’s initial exposition.
3) “Alambre de púa” is a micro-piece, one of three composed for this album. This one represents wire spiked fences that impeded going from one place to the other and forcing them to change course.
It starts with a free improvisation that flows into a slow tempo, spacious and airy groove. It features the first appearance in the album of the brilliant guitarist Pablo Passini.
4) The fourth track is “Nocturnal”, a piano trio piece inspired by going through paths in the middle of the night, where the vision enhances itself, and it’s possible to hear strange sounds originated by nocturnal life.
It starts with a high-energy intro in 6/8 played by the whole ensemble, leading to a slower tempo groove and piano melody, incorporating different dynamics and riffs with metric changes shifting from 4/4 to 9/16 and 3/4. It continues with a solo by bassist Flavio Romero, beautifully constructed and very rich melodically, followed by a powerful piano solo by Mariano Sarra.
It ends with a reexposure and a coda in 9/16, with a slowed-down unison played by piano and bass, with a final hit played by the whole ensemble.
5) “Cerrado por el tiempo” is the title of the fifth song of the album. It is a high-energy instrumental piece in 7/4 and 4/4 inspired by paths that, for the lack of use, are obstructed by vegetation growth, which makes you decide whether to continue through that path passing between branches and leaves or try to find another way.
It features guitarist Pablo Passini playing the lead melody, flowing from a binary feel to a ternary 9/8 metric modulation, with African music rhythmic traces. The song continues with a fantastic guitar solo by Pablo Passini, owner of a very personal sound and ideas, which grows until an interlude where piano joins the melody, to end with a reexposure from a high energy melody section of the head is followed by a ternary Afro in unison.
6) “Vertiente” is the second micro-piece of the album, played in a quartet setting with Pablo on guitar. It is inspired by natural watersheds that can appear along the way.
It is a slow and groovy piece, which contrasts the previous piece with its joyful mood, anticipating the next one.
7) The seventh track of the album is “Hacia vos”, an instrumental piece inspired by the path that takes us to find the people we love. It is a playful song played by the piano trio, composed using a danceable riff that is variated and put into different metric measures, shifting from 4/4 to 3/4 and 7/8 measures where drummer Axel Filip grooves comfortably, feeling like navigating through a 4/4 feel. It stands as the groovy piece of the album, due to its structure, repetition and bass and drums cadence and with a duration of 4 minutes sharp.
The song structure is maintained through the whole piece, with a venturous spirit piano solo by Mariano Sarra, ending with the initial melody, in a traditional jazz manner of the head in, solo, and head out.
8) “Al río” is the eighth track of the album, featuring bassist Flavio Romero. It’s a piano trio piece, which starts in a subtle and gentle way, with a slow piano ostinato in 3⁄4 (with an inner clave which can be felt as three measures of 7/8 and one in 3/8, popularized by composer Guillermo Klein), which ascends and descends in a dreamlike fashion and serves as a platform for a bass improvisation played in a duo setting.
This mood is interrupted by the entrance of the drums, giving place to an intricate yet hip groove. It flows from 4/4 to 5/8 measures, and 4/4 on the B section of the melody, landing on a 6/4 structure for an extended bass solo, accompanied by piano and drums, followed by a strong interlude to land on the initial melody and groove played in the head in and a coda in 9/8, with a Latin-American feel, where drummer Axel Filip builds a spicy solo until the end of the piece.
This composition was inspired by paths that take you to rivers, and the ones that follow rivers through its courses.
9) “A la memoria” is the third and last micro-piece of the album, with a more introspective mood, played by the piano trio plus Pablo on guitar. It contains testimony from a member of the Napalpi community, native people from El Chaco (Argentinian province) who speaks about a massacre that occurred in 1947 at the hands of the Argentinian military force.
This piece was inspired by the communion with nature, which native people considered their goddess (The Pachamama), and the opposite face represented by white man civilization, who treats nature almost with contempt and oppresses native communities with extreme violence.
10) The closing track of the album is “El Brujo” a piece composed to and dedicated to the memory of Santiago Maldonado, who died under dark circumstances in an operation of the Argentine gendarmerie while violently evicting a Mapuche community in La Patagonia (south of Argentina). This case took international relevance and touched a great part of Argentinian society.
This piece features an octet setting, featuring the amazing singer Melina Moguilevsky on vocals and Surdelsur string quartet (conducted by Juan Klas) who join the piano trio. The piece starts with a string quartet intro, evoking feelings of peace and tranquility, representing in some way Santiago’s life and the trip that took until he got to La Patagonia. This intro is followed by a section where the trio plus Melina, who sings a melody that floats over a 7/8 groove, with the drums playing a microgroove in 11/8 over it.
The string quartet appears through the piece playing backs and adding tension to specific moments, and in the middle plays a complex soli over a 7/8 measure, that concludes when Melina joins to sing “may the gods hear our prayers, where are they? There’s no mercy nor justice, the ancestors sing” with violinist Guillermo Rubino playing unison and the rest of the strings adding supporting backs.
The tune ends with the whole ensemble in action and Melina singing an epic solo, backed by an intense rhythm section comping and counterpointed canonic string backs.
1. Repleto de raíces 4:29
2. A la inconsciencia 5:21
3. Alambre de púa 0:59
4. Nocturnal 5:28
5. Cerrado por el tiempo 4:59
6. Vertiente 0:41
7. Hacia vos 4:00
8. Al río 5:16
9. A la memoria 0:44
10. El Brujo 3:42
Axel Filip - drums/compositions/arrangements/lyrics
Mariano Sarra - piano
Flavio Romero - contrabass
Guests:
Melina Moguilevsky – voice (track 10)
Milton Amadeo – voice (track 2)
Pablo Passini – guitar (track 5)
Surdelsur Ensemble – string quartet (track 10)
Recorded at Estudio Dr. F in Buenos Aires, engineered, mixed & mastered by Pablo Lopez Ruiz
All music and lyrics by Axel Filip
Album art/design by Daniel Rivas
Camera: Mariano Asseff
Visual interventions on videos: Axel Filip/Camila Nebbia
The single A la inconsciencia (Spotify) and Nocturnal, available here are already available on all streaming platforms
Releases on the independent label, ears&eyes Records, on August 30th, 2021
(Digital Release - ears&eyes Records August 20, 2021)
