The Rite of Trio - Free Development of Delirium (October 2021 Clean Feed Records)

"Six years after the internationally acclaimed GETTING ALL THE EVIL OF THE PISTON COLLAR!, the uncontested masters of jambacore - André B. Silva, Pedro Melo Alves and Filipe Louro - strike again with a powerful new album in which they give full throttle to their nonsensical, humoristic, ironic, cynical, in-your-face and yes, crazy, musical post-post modernist concept. The music is made of the debris of past avant-gardes, coming from jazz, contemporary classical music, metal, punk and some other frontlines of counter-cultural expression. The result is a delirium of sounds and forms, as the title promises.

It provokes us, as in “You Don’t Mind if We Laugh” and “Ego.Death”; confuses us in “C2H3Cl3O2”, and it makes you believe that there’s still space for something different, uncompromised, committed and new. The Rite of Trio may be playing us around, but the music is damn serious and it will, for sure, affect you in pleasant, though somewhat strange ways. Are you prepared for this sonic assault?"

1. Captive Stagnation of Equilibrium 03:13

2. Open Letters 02:53

3. Mind & Matter 05:47

4. Tear Down Your Dwellings 03:18

5. You Won’t Mind If We Laugh 02:13

6. Images of Control 03:37

7. Ego.Death 06:26

8. Bagel.Death 04:50

9. Put Up New Dwellings 02:17

10. DELKRUM 02:38

11. Closed Letters 03:33

12. C2H3Cl3O2 04:40

13. Free Development of Delirium 04:06

André B. Silva - electric guitar, acoustic guitar

Filipe Louro - doublebass, electric bass, acoustic guitar

Pedro Melo Alves - drums, electronics

All compositions by The Rite of Trio

Recorded and mixed by João Brandão at Arda Recorders, Porto, Portugal on June and July 2021 | Mastered by Miguel Pinheiro Marques at Arda Recorders, Porto, Portugal

Production by The Rite of Trio | Executive production by Pedro Costa | Design by Travassos

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Pedro Melo Alves' Omniae Large Ensemble - Lumina (October 2021 Clean Feed Records)

“We sure are alive”, writes Pedro Melo Alves in the liner notes of “Lumina”. It’s true, the music inside is a survival chant: we made it, after two years of a science fiction-like nightmare. And suddenly, there’s some light. The Portuguese composer and drummer was the winner in 2016 of the Bernardo Sassetti Award with the first version of his Omniae Ensemble concept. At the invitation of the Guimarães Jazz Festival in 2020, during a brief interval between lockdowns, he transformed the original septet to a 23-elements large ensemble, adding electronics, tuba, clarinet, flutes, bassoon, cello, classical guitar, three singers and a maestro (Pedro Carneiro, also known as a percussionist in both the contemporary classical and improvised music fields) to the original mix and writing new, defying and more inclusive, in terms of vocabularies and grammars, scores for it. “How do we even start to look for all that ungraspable light?”, Melo Alves asks. Well, this is how. 

1. Ubi 30:57

2. Phelia 21:00

3. Onírea 22:59

Pedro Carneiro - maestro

Pedro Melo Alves - drums and percussion

José Diogo Martins - piano

Mané Fernandes - electric guitar

Pablo p. Moledo - doublebass

Clara Saleiro - flutes

João Pedro Brandão - flute and alto saxophone

José Soares - alto saxophone

Albert Cirera - tenor and soprano saxophone

Frederic Cardoso - alto and bass clarinet

Álvaro Machado - bassoon

Gileno Santana - trumpet

Xavi Sousa - trombone

Ricardo Pereira - trombone

Fábio Rodrigues - tuba

Luís José Martins - classical guitar

Luís André Ferreira - cello

Alvaro Rosso - doublebass

Mariana Dionísio - voice

Nazaré da Silva - voice

Diogo Ferreira - voice

João Miguel Braga Simões - percussion

João Carlos Pinto - eletronics

All compositions and arrangements by Pedro Melo Alves

Recorded live by João Bessa at Centro Cultural de Vila Flor, Guimarães, on the 22nd of November 2020, Part of Guimarães Jazz 2020, by invitation of Ivo Martins | Edited by Pedro Melo Alves | Mixed and mastered by João Bessa

Produced by António Fernandes | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos | Photo by Matilde Cunha, art direction and post-production by ELLEONOR

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Javier Subatin - Mountains (August 2021 Habitable Records)

Javier Subatin’s laser-accurate guitar drive grounds the interplay on Mountains, a natural world infused spin through the past and future of improvised music. Sidestepping the jazz concept of rhythm-section-with-lead-“voice” the partnership here operates with fluidity- a constant exchange of summit and valley- the listener’s attention drawn to multiple complementary synapses climbing together in tandem revelatory invention. Demian Cabaud’s double bass and Pedro Melo Alves’ drums suffuse Javier’s compositions with colorful innovation, restraint, heft, elation…guests (Samuel Gapp, piano; Ricardo Jacinto, cello; João Mortágua, alto sax) expand the range cohesive and untethered.

1. Mountain#1 03:52

2. Rocks 01:30

3. Mountain#5 11:29

4. Birds 03:42

5. Mountain#3 10:11

6. Cave 03:09

7. Mountain#4 06:02

8. Ground 02:44

9. Mountain#2 06:09

10. Mountain#6 10:05

11. Shadows 03:45

12. Solo#5 05:01

Javier Subatin - guitar, live electronics and composition

Demian Cabaud - double bass, birds (4) and water (3)

Pedro Melo Alves - drums

João Mortágua - alto sax (10, 11, 12)

Ricardo Jacinto - cello (9, 11, 12)

Samuel Gapp - piano (4, 5, 11, 12)

All tracks composed by Javier Subatin except 2, 4, 6, 8 and 11 (group improvisations)

Recorded by André Espada at Musibéria Sound Studio

Mixing and mastering by Javier Subatin

Design by Raquel Nobre G.

Produced by Javier Subatin with the support of Fundação GDA

"Mountains" was recorded in April 2021 as part of the RAM (Musiberia Artistic Residences) program at Musibéria, in Serpa.

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Luís Vicente Trio - Chanting In The Name Of (June 2021 clean feed records)

A Portuguese trumpeter more and more present in the international scene, in such a way that he has more concerts scheduled in other countries than on his own, Luís Vicente never seems to stop: after the success of his partnership with John Dikeman, William Parker and Hamid Drake in “Goes Without Saying, But It’s Got to Be Said”, he turns to national silver (represented here by Gonçalo Almeida and Pedro Melo Alves, both protagonists of their own projects) and signs an album that inspires Drake, the above mentioned master drummer, to write (in the liner notes) that Vicente’s work is a lesson about «keep looking, searching for new possibilities, broadening ones views» and part of «the underlying code of the whole universe», as Sufi mystic Hazrat Iayat Khan put it. Once again applying his never apologetic «sense of freedom», Vicente is back with a powerful album that is a joy to listen to. He may not take any prisoners, but just because he releases them.

1. Anahata 10:33

2. Keep Looking 10:13

3. Chanting in the Name Of 11:54

4. Connecting the Dots 06:00

5. May's Flavour 07:07

Luís Vicente trumpet

Gonçalo Almeida doublebass

Pedro Melo Alves drums and percussion

Recorded on the 9th and 10th of January, 2021 at Soundinnovation Studios, by Fábio Miranda | Mixed by Pedro Melo Alves | Mastered by Marcelo dos Reis

Produced by Luís Vicente | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos

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Pedro Carneiro | Pedro Melo Alves - Bad Company (June 2021 clean feed records)

Carneiro and Melo Alves aren’t bad companions to each other, as you’ll soon find out. The title of this recording comes from a story by Japanese writer Yasuoka Shotaro, reminding us how literature influences the creation of good music. Percussionist, conductor and composer, Pedro Carneiro's main activity is in the realm of contemporary classical music, mostly with his huge bass marimba, either playing his own music or compositions by Iannis Xenakis or other 20/21 century radical composers. On the side, he’s very much present in the field of free improvised music, with the likes of Carlos “Zíngaro” and pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro, already known by the Clean Feed listeners as a member of Red Trio. 

Pedro Melo Alves is the new prince charming of the Portuguese jazz scene, as a specially accomplished composer and drummer, with projects like Omniae Ensemble, In Igma (with Mark Dresser), The Rite of Trio and symph. Together, they engendered an opus which has everything of the best percussion music of these present days. This time, made totally in the moment, spontaneously and intuitively, even when it doesn’t seem so. A very welcomed gem.

1. revelry 05:21

2. a touch of self-satisfaction 05:42

3. restlessly in circles 02:27

4. from a starless sky 06:23

5. A secret domain 02:33

6. between retreat and return 02:38

7. a totally unexpected joy 04:22

8. From street to street 06:23

9. gross exaggeration 02:59

10. making a veritable religion 05:11

Pedro Carneiro marimba with quarter tone extension

Pedro Melo Alves prepared drums

Recorded and edited by Pedro Carneiro and Pedro Melo Alves at Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa (OCP), Algés, Portugal on January 6 and 7, 2021 | Mixed and Mastered by Nicolas Baillard at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines, France

Produced by Pedro Carneiro and Pedro Melo Alves | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Liner photo by Bruno Vicente | Design by Travassos

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