Hearth (Mette Rasmussen / Ada Rave / Susana Santos Silva / Kaja Draksler) - Melt (April 19, 2021 clean feed records)

Hearth is the warmth in our lives, pulsing from the center of what we call home. We could also look at it as a combination of the words Heart and Earth, equating two factors of life in search of plenitude: the human one, and the planet in which we live in. This Heart has the energy of life creation and this Earth is Mother Earth, home for all known living beings. This quartet is formed by four spirited musicians: Susana Santos Silva, Mette Rasmussen, Ada Rave and Kaja Draksler, each one of a different origin, Portugal, Denmark, Argentina and Slovenia. None of them live in the country they were born: Santos Silva’s home is in Stockholm, Rasmussen’s base of work is in Trondheim, Rave is based in Amsterdam and Draksler in Copenhagen.

Yes, improvised music is transnational and, wanted or not, belongs to humanity. It was in the capital of Holland that the four met for the first time. It was in 2016 at the October Meeting, thanks to a program of ad-hoc combinations, that their desire to play together and form a band came into being. Magic happened at that concert, and all the intervenientes decided then and there that it was a project to explore in the future.

The future, an uncertain one in many respects, comes with this “Melt”, a collection of well-thought improvised soundscapes focusing on moods and textures going from the almost inaudible to massive explosions of sounds, with the musical instruments involved – trumpet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone (doubling with clarinet) and piano – being extended by other audible resources, preparations and voices. This is exploratory music at its best, not afraid to enter the unknown, and a refreshing proposal.

1. Fading Icebergs 04:32

2. Tidal Phase 05:47

3. At Daybreak 06:35

4. In Oscillation 05:46

5. Diving Bells 14:05

6. Turbulent Flow 12:48

Susana Santos Silva trumpet

Mette Rasmussen alto saxophone

Ada Rave tenor saxophone, clarinet

Kaja Draksler piano, small instruments, preparations and voices by Hearth

All music by Hearth

Recorded at Portalegre Jazz Festival on May 3 - 5 by João Serigado | Mixed and mastered by João Serigado

Produced by Hearth | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos | Cover photo by Szymon Gąsiorek | Band photo by Luís Filipe Catarino/4SEE Photographers

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Ada Rave Trio - The Sea, The Storm and the Full Moon (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2017)

The Argentinian contribution to the universality of jazz is measured by everything Leandro “Gato” Barbieri gave to the music, and the gauge was put very high by the late saxophonist. Every sax player who emerged, after him, from the Buenos Aires scene had that extra challenge, and that’s the case of Ada Rave, who choose Europe – she’s based in Amsterdam – instead of the United States (Barbieri’s case), to start a succesful international career. Along with partnerships with musicians like Ab Baars, Onno Govaert, Kaja Draksler, Felicity Provan and Michael Vatcher, who by now are familiar names to the label Clean Feed followers, she formed this trio with the eminent improvisers Wilbert De Joode and Nicola Hein. Together, they create a very impressionistic reading of the poem “The Sea, the Storm and the Full Moon”, written by Rave, with the music developing on the edge of a thunderous storm, until it suddenly dissolves and a full moon is discovered up in the sky, «immense in my dream  / so real in me», as the words describe it. Generally interested in finding new paths among the possible combinations of written composition and spontaneous improvisation, here Ada Rave gives full space to her fascination for the free improvised group interactions, benefiting from the very special skills of her experimented partners. What comes from that approach is very different from everything given to us by “Gato” Barbieri, but her origins couldn’t be more honoured.

1 Inner Chaos 5:11

2 Primitive Dance 7:00

3 Breathing The Ocean's Air 5:18

4 The Journey Of The Little Being 6:33

5 An Instant All The Moments 5:01

6 Comes From A Dream 4:04

7 The Sea, The Storm And The Full Moon 7:12

Ada Rave  tenor sax / clarinet and flutes on 4

Nicola L. Hein  prepared guitar

Wilbert De Joode  contrabass