Atlantis Trio at MutaMenti HK

Atlantis Trio
Tsuen Wan Town Hall
MutaMenti HK
Hong Kong
September 27, 2023

A lot of flak is (fairly) laid on the often clumsy, jarring aesthetics of "global-beat," "world fusion," or whatever you want to call it (terms I use sparingly and with reservation). But the truth is however earnest the expectation, however tasteful the application, melding musical traditions isn't always as seamlessly intuitive as the true masters make it appear. Music might be a universal language, but heavy accents and differing dialects mean not everyone is always understood.

This much was made clear by the well-meant but ultimately stunted Atlantis Trio—which piqued my interest with a line-up promising sitar and tabla paired with jazz piano. The two camps appeared symbolically at opposing ends of the stage—the music they made an earnest attempt to bridge the gap. But defined by its open tuning and immutable sympathetic strings, the sitar is necessarily restricted to a single chord. On both pianist's Roberto Olzer's self-penned title tracks, "Atlantis," and an Irish traditional, especially, the effect was to reign in any scope for excitement on either side of the stage, the keys bound to basic harmonies, the sitar restricted to thumbing big, simple melodies, George Harrison-style, and the tabla plodding through 4/4 time.

A stately cover of Jan Garbarek's "Brother Wind Marsh" offered some folkish middle ground; thankfully the exchange worked better travelling from East to West. Sitar player Deobrat Mishra's introspective "Song for Nuu" is based around a flamenco progression which permits a forgiving approach to droning open strings. An elegy to his deceased mother, "Remembering Pramila" served as a spirited, spiritual outpouring— including a rousing sung middle section—with Olzer's simple piano arpeggios somehow adding to the solemn drama. A closing raga-ish improv saw the sitar and piano fierily sparring ideas for the first and only time all night, tabla player Prashant Mishra's galloping beats, finally unleashed.

The performance was the first of four hosted over two nights as part of MutaMenti HK, which saw the Italian festival brand transplanted to Hong Kong under the admirable Jazz in the Neighborhood initiative. Olzer remained onstage for the opening show's second half, a painfully polite tribute to Ennio Morricone directed by festival founder and harpist Max De Aloe—backed by Hong Kong's own capable quintet Fountain de Chopin, augmented on a couple of ballads by vocalist Heidi Li. Tellingly, things really only cooked when the elder Italian pair left the stage altogether and local prodigy Bowen Li took the piano stool for a stirring, restless reinterpretation of "Friends" from Once Upon a Time in America.