Tommaso Iacoviello: Birds

The world around us grows increasingly loud as artificial noise proliferates, drowning out natural sounds. Italian trumpeter Tommaso Iacoviello believes "nature is not only something to look at, but also something to listen to." His debut album, Birds, invites us to "stop for a moment, close our eyes and listen to what surrounds us. Imagine immersing ourselves in an ancient forest, hearing the rustle of leaves in the wind, the melodious song of birds and the slow flow of a stream or the flat calm of a pond."

Iacoviello takes natural sounds as his theme as he tries to capture the soundscape that surrounds us and transform this into avant- garde compositions. The result is an intriguing blend of improvised jazz, scientific bioacoustics and ornithological observation.

Iacoviello, from Florence, Italy, makes a quintet with vibraphonist Nazareno Caputo, guitarist Nicolò Francesco Faraglia, bassist Ferdinando Romano and drummer Saverio Cacopardi.

The opening track, "Rigogolo" (oriole), echoes the sound of the songbird with guitar and vibraphone weaving together before a gentle interplay in various instrumental combinations, attempting to capture natural sounds and colors as musical contexts. This works well on the slow atmospheric drift of bass and vibraphone in "Assiolo" (scops owl), evoking a nocturnal soundscape. Romano's bass coils through the piece, linking guitar and trumpet effects before his own solo.

The eleven-minute title track opens with field recordings of birdsong and develops with each instrument taking up the sound of a specific bird. As the dialogue develops, Iacoviello's trumpet (blackcap) explorations stand out alongside Faraglia's well-controlled electric guitar (chaffinch) bursts.

"Valsolda," inspired by the soundscape of the Valsolda Regional Forest, in Lombardy, again assigns different instruments to represent the songs of specific birds, with the guitar (cuckoo) and Cacopardi's drums (chaffinch) particularly impressing.

The birds and animals of the wetlands inspire "Garzaie," with field recordings mixed with double bass and guitar, with Iacoviello's trumpet playing the main theme. We move to the hidden world of the woodland as "Tottavilla" (woodlark) proves to be the liveliest piece on the album, with some fine interplay setting the scene for Iacoviello's trumpet lines.

This is an unusual album, but Iacoviello's research and analysis of bioacoustic recordings have borne fruit: He uses natural sounds as raw material to drive his improvisations across this gentle and surprisingly rewarding collection. If his attempts to capture the nuances of the natural world make us pause and consider the beauty surrounding us, then that is no bad thing.

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