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Michele Rabbia/Gianluca Petrella/Eivind Aarset: Lost River
ByThe titles are all concerned with water. "Nimbus" (a rain cloud) opens the set with atmospheric percussion, the trombone playing a plaintive melody (Petrella often plays a lead role here similar to trumpeters Arve Henriksen and Nils Petter Molvaer on earlier ECM recordings). Rabbia adds a light, steady rhythmic pulse, while Aarset builds an abstract background soundscape. "Flood" is all atmosphere, with guitar soundscapes taking the lead for most of the piece, with a swelling climax that dies out slowly. "What Floats Beneath" is credited to Aarset alone, and features the first traditional guitar sounds: gentle strummed chords, over a background that includes sound effects imitating water.
The title tune is an atmospheric three-way conversation between light percussion, swelling guitar, and trombone (sometimes with echo, briefly in conversation with itself). "Night Sea Journey" features trombone with a wah-wah mute, and a long closing electronic soundscape. "Fluvius" (Latin for river or stream) is credited to Rabbia, and is the longest track at over six minutes. Not at all the percussion-oriented song one might expect, it includes a gentle repeated trombone melody, swelling electronicsand no obvious percussion sounds. The program concludes with two brief tracks: "Flotsam" (wreckage of a ship or its cargo floating or washed up by the sea), an atmospheric drum/guitar duet, and "Wadi" (an Arabic term for a dry riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs), an even more atmospheric closer.
Recent improvisational sessions involving these players include Tigran Hamasyan/Arve Henriksen/Eivind Aarset/Jan Bang: Atmosphères (ECM, 2016) and Giovanni Guidi/Gianluca Petrella/Louis Sclavis/Gerald Cleaver: Ida Lupino (ECM, 2016). But both of these have a particular genre emphasis: Armenian music, especially the composer Komitas, colors Atmosphères; modern jazz informs the sound of Ida Lupino. Here there is no stylistic agenda, to enchanting result.
Track Listing
Nimbus; Flood; What Floats Beneath; Lost River; Styx; Night Sea Journey; Fluvius; What The Water Brings; Flotsam; Wadi.
Personnel
Michele Rabbia
percussionMichele Rabbia: drums, electronics; Gianluca Petrella: trombone, sounds; Eivind Aarset: guitar, electronics.
Album information
Title: Lost River | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: ECM Records
Comments
About Michele Rabbia
Instrument: Percussion
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