Simon Nabatov String Trio - Situations (February 2022)

"What all this music has in common is willingness to explore mixed methodologies to break new ground, articulating possibilities, experiences and fresh reservoirs of consciousness. Together Nabatov, Lubbe and Davis mark out fresh and delightful terrain, whether it's taut reverie, ecstatic turmoil or zones and conditions that resist binary, tertiary or any other kind of naming."

Stuart Broomer

1. Situation 1 Unfold - Fold 11:36

2. Situation 2 Reverie 08:49

3. Situation 3 Stern Looks 08:51

4. Situation 4 Sunrise Twice 08:33

5. Situation 5 Temper Issues 06:28

6. Situation 6 Meta Morph 10:36

All music by Simon Nabatov (GEMA)

Simon Nabatov - piano

Gareth Lubbe - viola

Ben Davis - violoncello

Recorded by Christian Heck in LOFT Cologne November 21 2015

Mixed and mastered by Stefan Deistler

Cover image by Oguz Buyukberber

PRE-ORDER

Gareth Lubbe / Simon Nabatov - LUBATOV (February 2022)

The history of the LUBATOV duo is a series of discrete events that took place over the past decade - a few concerts occurring once a year at the most, but, luckily, recorded every time these two brilliant musicians presented their music in Cologne's LOFT.

The CD comprises two such documents, captured in 2010 and 2014, thus demonstrating the trajectory of the tandem's musical evolution over the course of years.

Free(ly) improvised music informed by the elements of classical or new academic fields is not a novel proposal per se. However, here the aesthetics and compositional tactics of the Modern Classics of the 20th century seem to be the prevalent taste, while keeping the recipes wide open to other possibilities.

The duo clearly prefers to create spontaneous yet well defined macro-forms, as opposed to cut-and-chop proceedings so often permeating the world of improvisation these days.

Add to the mix Lubbe's mesmerizing and innovative vocals, and you have an hour of compelling and absorbing music to enjoy.

Nick Duvidowski

1. Plush Suite I 08:53

2. Plush Suite II 08:11

3. Plush Suite III 03:53

4. Plush Suite IV 03:10

5. Plush Suite V 09:31

6. Suite In Be I 09:18

7. Suite In Be II 06:14

8. Suite In Be III 04:31

9. Psalm 07:40

All music by Gareth Lubbe (GEMA) and Simon Nabatov (GEMA)

Gareth Lubbe - viola, voice

Simon Nabatov - piano

PRE-ORDER

Simon Nabatov String Trio - Situations (LEO RECORDS 2018)

Nabatov's chamber music calls for a kind of string player only recently arrived, who is equally comfortable with complex scores and the challenges of improvising. These conditions are happily met by violist Gareth Lubbe and cellist Ben Davis, who participate brilliantly in Nabatov's compound vision - the dialectics of possibilities, the brace of the new in the embrace of the known. In a single piece, the trio moves from manic-chaotic through spiky school-of-Vienna pointillism to roller-coaster improvisation that thins out to something that might play blissfully in the background of an impossibly high-end Brazilian beach bar. Together Nabatov, Lubbe and Davis mark out fresh and delightful terrain, whether it's taut reverie, ecstatic turmoil or zones and conditions that resist any kind of naming.