Featuring: Albert Cirera | Hernâni Faustino | Gabriel Ferrandini | Agustí Fernández
Albert Cirera – tenor and soprano saxophone
Hernâni Faustino – bass
Gabriel Ferrandini – drums
Agustí Fernández – piano
| 1. Before | 15:58 |
| 2. The | 22:15 |
| 3. Silence | 20:29 |
| 4. Coda | 4:31 |
Maciej Lewenstein -
A masterpiece of free improvised music Iberica! Albert is a paradigmatic symbol of Barcelona-Lisboa connection, Hernâni and Gabriel are associated with the Lisboa scene, and the Mallorca guy Agustí is also the guy of Barcelona down to the marrow of his bones. Recorded at the Jazz Cava de Vic at the Festival Jazz Vic, and released by my Lithuanian friends, Danas Mikailionis and NoBusiness Records. The quartet plays the music a little similar to the Liquid Quintet, where free improvisation combined with a more "traditional" free jazz.
On "Before" we ca hear it clearly; it is and explosive track, with overblowing soprano and "outside" piano played à la Cecil Taylor in trance. In the middle the mood changes, and the section takes over with an abstract, but more peaceful duo. Cirera comes back with powerful, long tomes on tenor, to enter another fantastic collective quartet improvisation with Agustí outside the piano. In fact the fi nal two minutes is a tenor-piano duo. Exquisite.
"The " is 22 minutes long, and is very diff erent. It stars very abstractly and peacefully, with fragmented voices of the tenor, inside piano and the section. Around the beginning of the 4th minute Agustí goes out of the piano and plays a wonderful short solo, until he is joined with Albert, blowing with the full power. After few
minutes the collective quartet improvisations began again, with Agustí playing in a Cecil Taylor style. The continue like that in various combinations: quartet, trio with piano, or trio with saxophone. Gabriel and Hernâni are out of this world. Around the end of the 13th minute the mood becomes cooler. Agustí leads his
diabolic solo, until Albert joins him on soprano. Another explosion takes place and continues till the end minute, when another quiet dialogue of the saxophone and bass.
"Silence", as one could guess is a slow ballad-like theme. The character of the track changes after 7-8 minutes, both Albert and Agustí, supported by the miraculous section. The final coda is the mist "traditional", but very very beautiful. This album is perfect illustration for what is the best of the best on Iberian Peninsula: XXIst century paraphrase of free jazz in Lisboa, and XXI century post-avantgarde in Barcelona. The melting pot is where the truly new and magic music s born!!!
