Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Albert Cirera: Before The Silence

6

Albert Cirera: Before The Silence

By

View read count
Albert Cirera: Before The Silence
On Before The Silence, four musicians from the Iberian Peninsula collectively birth one 53-minute improvisation, split into three tracks and a final short coda. Pianist Agusti Fernandez is likely the most recognizable name here, but the nominal leader reedman Albert Cirera has an enduring association with the pianist, first as a student, then appearing as part of his Liquid Trio. Completing the outfit are bassist Hernani Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini, known from the Portuguese RED Trio, and in the latter's case saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's Motion Trio. The group forges an uncompromising aesthetic which combines high octane intensity with instrumental exploration.

Cirera predominantly eschews conventional pitches and suggest variously John Butcher with his distorted clucking and overtones and Peter Brötzmann when he savages repeated motifs. On soprano his careening slalom often defaults to falsetto yelping, but he is at his most distinctive in the lower registers. Fernandez moves effortlessly between the keys and the innards of his instrument as the logic of the unfurling improv dictates. As expected from such long familiarity, Faustino and Ferrandini shadow each other closely, though there's sometimes not enough space to fully comprehend Ferrandini's wondrous percussive torrent of pitch and timbre.

That density of interaction pervades the bulk of "Before," evoking a quartet sprinters hurtling towards the tape in parallel lanes, occasionally verging on the claustrophobic. The more open passages during the incremental beginning and at the end where Cirera's tenor preaches slowly against a seething rhythmic stew come as a relief. They are at their best when there's sufficient transparency to appreciate the interplay, as early in "The" when Fernandez' angular clusters jostle alongside choppy bass and drums.

Later in the same piece the pianist scales the heights, provoking comparisons with Cecil Taylor in terms of his energy and passion, and then enjoying a tappy mercurial duet with Ferrandini. After a pointillist opening to "Silence," suddenly all four embark on an excitingly manic chase corralled by thumping drums which ensure everyone pulls in the same direction. In a demonstration of emotional range, "Coda" acts as a short palate cleanser, which veers within sight of the outer fringes of tunefulness, but never quite breaches the City limits.

Track Listing

Before; The; Silence; Coda.

Personnel

Albert Cirera
saxophone

Albert Cirera: soprano, tenor saxophones; Agustí Fernandez: piano; Hernani Faustino: bass; Gabriel Ferrandini: drums.

Album information

Title: Before The Silence | Year Released: 2017 | Record Label: NoBusiness Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.