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.

PRE-ORDER

The Selva - The Selva (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2017)

The Portuguese trio The Selva likes to make musical references, to symbolize and to propose dubious significations. The debut album of the group starts with a piece full of indeterminate allusions to the Far-Eastern traditional music expressions. It goes on with a virtual journey through Renaissance times and its aesthetic values, seeming to invite us to care more for the beauty of life. Only in the third track we find recognizable ground as improvised music, but the motives and the obsessive repetitions are clearly African. From then on we hear either wales or machines operating, and when we less expect it is also a distillation of the blues form, but involved in a dreamy fog, as if reminding us from where this kind of music comes from. We’ll soon understand it as the introduction of what comes next: jazz in its more naked and crude essence. But we’re not yet at the destination of this semiotic use of sound – there’s also an acoustic / performative approach to concrete music, twice presented and twice changing into something else. This enterprise combining two string instruments, the cello of Ricardo Jacinto and the double bass of Gonçalo Almeida, with the percussion devices of Nuno Morão never rests in the chamber domain and that is an absolute novelty. This is different from everything already done with this instrumental format, but so naturally that makes you think why it didn’t happen before.

1. The Selva, Pt 1 1:37

2. The Selva, Pt 2 2:42

3. The Selva, Pt 3 15:08

4. The Selva, Pt 4 1:58

5. The Selva, Pt 5 2:00

6. The Selva, Pt 6 4:57

7. The Selva, Pt 7 11:08

8. The Selva, Pt 8 3:17

9. The Selva, Pt 9 4:32

Ricardo Jacinto  cello

Gonçalo Almeida  double bass

Nuno Morão  drums

All music by The Selva

Recorded and mastered by Nuno Morão at Scratch Built Studios, Lisbon / October 2016 / February 2017 | Mixed by Nuno Fernandes, London / January 2017.

Produced by The Selva | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Cover image by Madalena Matoso | Design by Travassos

Joana Gama | Luis Fernandes | Ricardo Jacinto - Harmonies (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2017)

After QUEST, the piano and electronics duo by Joana Gama and Luís Fernandes, and SATIE.150, Gama’s project signaling the 150th anniversary of the composer Erik Satie, HARMONIES is the combination of those two musical investments, but adding a third element: cellist Ricardo Jacinto, also well known as a sound and visual artist. This is the next and brilliant step to the album QUEST, which content wasn’t already defined by Joana Gama’s parallel incursions in contemporary classical music or Luís Fernandes’ activities in the fields of rock and ambient electronica, with the band peixe:avião and under the name The Astroboy or Landforms.

It’s much more than that: the exploration of a new musical ground alternative to previous paradigms, but now profiting from the contributions of Jacinto, a musician usually committed to experimental music and improvisation. Curiously enough, the simple melodies suggested by Satie give a more evident pop flavor to the pieces at the same time that the constructions get more experimental. The music keeps being puzzling and mysterious, but the beauty of it all is overwhelming.

1. Entrée en forme de idylle 10:16

2. Édification en forme de Ogives 6:55

3. Piége en forme de Valse 4:33

4. Mémoires en forme de Véxations 8:28

5. Développement en forme de Harmonies 8:58

6. Sortie en forme de Panthée 7:47

Joana Gama piano

Luis Fernandes electronics

Ricardo Jacinto cello, electronics

All compositions by Joana Gama, Luís Fernandes e Ricardo Jacinto, inspired by the music of Erik Satie

Recorded and mixed by Luís Fernandes | Mastered by Nélson Carvalho

Executive prodution by Travassos for Trem Azul | Design and artwork by Travassos