Ziv Taubenfeld / Helena Espvall / João Sousa: You, Full Of Sources And Night

Allow me to quote the interstellar traveler Sun Ra: "They speak of cosmic rays of sound / Wavelength infinity / Always touching planets / In opposition outward bound." He may or may not have been speaking of Eric Dolphy's 1960 Prestige recording of the same name. What we do know is that Dolphy, an accomplished and visionary musician on alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet, died tragically young at 36 from complications of diabetes. For the purposes of this review, let us imagine that Sun Ra's words describe not only what Dolphy achieved, but also what might have been had he lived longer. Alternatively, we can listen to the music of bass clarinetist Ziv Taubenfeld for a glimpse of the paths Dolphy may have continued to explore.

Israeli-born, Lisbon-based Taubenfeld releases his second album for NoBusiness Records, You, Full Of Sources And Nights, a follow-up to Reptiles by the trio Bones with bassist Shay Hazan and drummer Nir Sabag (2019). Here, Taubenfeld is joined by Swedish-born, Philadelphia-based cellist Helena Espvall and Portuguese drummer João Sousa. Unlike the earlier release, where Taubenfeld supplied most of the compositions, this session is entirely improvised, allowing the trio to work with pure sound and instinct.

That "wavelength infinity" Sun Ra invoked permeates the album. The opening track, "Oluyemi," is almost certainly a tribute to American free-jazz bass clarinetist Oluyemi Thomas. The trio begins with ghostly textures, plucked and struck strings, bass clarinet vocalizations, and trawling percussion, before escalating into a storm of bowed cello and energized drumming. The brief title track pits cello and drums in near-destructive dialogue against Taubenfeld's struck gongs.

"In The Ether, In A Light" introduces an off-kilter melody, with Taubenfeld murmuring and burbling an unbroken stream of inventive phrases. The outwardly scratchy abstraction of "Nuvem de Superfície Variável" eventually resolves into a quietly radiant melody from Espvall. A similar alchemy unfolds on "Of The Angel In You, Oh Tigers And Lions," whose ineffable beauty recalls the spiritual intensity of John Coltrane's "Psalm" from A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965).

You, Full Of Sources And Nights does not attempt to imitate Dolphy, nor does it need to. Instead, it inhabits the same expansive, searching universe, one where sound is unbound by form and imagination moves freely across registers, textures and emotional states. In that sense, Taubenfeld and his collaborators are not revisiting the past, but continuing a conversation that never truly ended.