This is another new quartet from Cirera, featuring Portuguese noise guitarist Luís Lopes, double bass player Faustino, and drummer Vasco Furtado. This free-improvising quartet was recorded on January 2016 in Lisbon, experimenting with its with physical, brutal interplay, focused on chartering extreme, unknown sonic terrains.
Already on the tense opening of “Dogmatic Elders Of Doom” all four musicians are busy searching and gravitating towards corresponding, extreme and even more extreme terrains. They offer a series of tough, energetic collisions that cover all the spectrum, from muddy, earthy ones – led by Cirera and drummer Furtado – to the most atmospheric ones, shaped by Lopes and Faustino. The shorter “A Lambskin Apron” and “The Sublime Degree” intensifies even further this restless mode, full of unpredictable, aggressive clashes. The longest piece, the 19-minutes “Disrupted Sacred Geometry And The Void” introduces more space to the quartet improvisation and shifts its intense and fast interplay to one that reference a fiery, free jazz meeting. This piece also enables the quartet to investigate more open, and sparse textures and experiment with surprising, weirder sounds, spicing its interplay with generous doses of cinematic, raw noises and metallic attacks. The last piece “Outward Introspection” ventilates all the energy and chaotic power, accumulated in the previous abstract detour, now heading for a final brutal, ecstatic orgy of sounds. Yeal Hareuveni
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2017/08/introducing-catalan-reeds-player-albert.html
_______________________________
Another phenomenal statement from Albert, recorded in Lisbon with his Portuguese companions. For me, who is an unconditional adorer of Harrison Ford, this concept album was, obviously, inspired by the movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. The quartet has a truly magnificent, mysterious sound, mostly due to the interplay of the incredible improvisations of Albert and the spatial sound of electric guitar of Luís. But, the section plays here also an extremely important and majestic role. Vasco Furtado is an ingenious drummer, the same who will record in 2018 “Multiverse” with Gonçalo Almeida and Yedo Gibson for the Spontaneous Music Tribune series; Hernâni does not need introduction he is one of the most important figures on the Portuguese scene. The opening “Dogmatic Elders of Doom”, on which Albert uses the soprano, is a perfect illustrations of my statements. “A Lambskin Apron” is short notable fragmented tenor statements, full of “special effects”, wonderful drumming, and amazing finger picked/bowed lines of the bass. The guitar enters later with a Derek Bailey-like phrases. “The Sublime Degree” is perhaps the most interesting track – a quiet, slowly developing “ballad”, starting with “fake-instruments” fragments, where it is di cult to determine, who is playing what and how. After three minuter the bass bowing and subtle drumming attain a clearer character, joined after some time by an electric guitar. Albert continues quiet saxophone sound explorations, approaching a joint climax with Luís and the section at the end. Another highlight is the nearly 19 minutes long “Disrupted Sacred Geometry and the Void”. It is a more “standard” free jazz piece, with absolutely phenomenal soprano solo at the beginning and delightful work of the section. The guitar enters a little later and conduct the dialogue with the saxophone that is not from this world. The nal “Outward Introspection” is a masterpiece of free improvised rock, something like a Iberian version of Last Exit, with another magisterial dialogue of the guitar and the tenor saxophone. Fantastic stuff, bravo!!! Maciej Lewenstein