Dissection Room: Albert Cirera / Abdul Moimême / Alvaro Rosso: Dissection Room

An international trio, based out of Lisbon, Portugal, Dissection Room formed in 2015 with saxophonist Albert Cirera, bassist Alvaro Rosso and guitarist and electronic artist Abdul Moiméme. The three artists share wide-ranging formal training in multiple disciplines as well as an affinity for experimental music. Their self-titled debut, recorded live at Lisbon's O'Culto Da Ajuda in late 2017, is both abstract and experimental and not at all for the faint of heart.

A native of the Catalan region of Northern Spain, Cirera studied classical music at Barcelona's Escola Municipal de Música d'Igualada where he made the transition from violin to reeds. Cirera was mentored by Tony Malaby, Ellery Eskelin, Bill McHenry, Perico Sambeat and Agusti Fernandez at various times in his extensive musical education. He is known regionally as a skilled player with the versatility to move between traditional jazz, pop and experimental music. Since 2011 Cirera has led his own quartet while working with a dozen other groups including Agusti Fernandez's Liquid Trio/Quintet and he has performed in festivals throughout Europe and Asia. Rosso made his way from his native Uruguay's capital of Montevideo through France and Spain and onto Portugal, absorbing musical knowledge at each stop. His master's degree concentrated on the double bass' range of expression, extended techniques and experimental music. Rosso has performed in classical ensembles, ballet, opera, theater and dance projects. He has worked with bassist Miguel Mira, cellist Fredrick Lonberg-Holm, Italian Jazz pianist and composer Nicola Guazzaloca, Cirera and Abdul Moimême. A Portuguese native, Moimême moved to the US and then Ireland in his youth. He studied guitar and tenor saxophone in the midst of pursuing an architectural degree in Boston and Lisbon. He has toured in South America and Europe. His solo album, Exosphere (Creative Sources Recordings, 2017) is an experimental work of art, recorded live in a 17th-century Portuguese church.

Dissection Room consists of a single track, "A Late Song for Saint Cecilia's Day," running just under fifty-four minutes. The piece does not so much fall into passages as it does behave like a series of chemical reactions. The music breaks down from one form into another at intervals, only occasionally revealing the natural voices of the instruments. More often it is extended techniques that fill the air, not necessarily as noise but as some primal manifestation of individual instruments in search of an alternate language through something beyond traditional harmonics and melody.

The group defies an analysis of their working dynamics; clearly there is communication between Cirera, Moimême and Rosso but whether that implies a desire to converge is a mystery. The group overlaps noise and technology with Moimême's prepared guitar blinking between ghostly effects and incisive clarity. Dissection Room is definitely for open ears and that audience will find it renews itself with repeated listening.