Personnel:
Pere Bujosa (b), Xavi Torres (p), Joan Terol (d), Lucas Martínez (ts)
Reference: FSNT-1016
Bar code: 8427328480161
"Wabi-Sabi is the title of the newly released trio album by Mallorcan double bassist and composer Pere Antoni Bujosa Abellan (Palma, 1992), recorded at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA) and endorsed by the Fresh Sound Records label . The album represents a leap forward in the composer's musical career, after the record debut two years earlier with the album, Who's Holland, by Pere Bujosa Group.
With Wabi-Sabi, Pere Bujosa evolves towards a more classic and intimate format configuration in terms of the choice of training, in trio, the best way to exploit freedom and give voice to the individualism of each musician. The double bass player aims to reflect his research and passion for rhythm and textures while introducing influences from other musics such as electronics, rock or free.
After receiving a classical training, Pere Bujosa continued studying jazz and modern music in Barcelona, then he made an exchange with the emblematic University of North Texas where he studied with the legendary bassist Lynn Seaton. Later he moved to the Netherlands and finished his studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory within the EUJAM Master program that led him to live in Berlin and Copenhagen . He has played alongside renowned national and international musicians such as Antonio Serrano (Paco de Lucía), Ben Van Gelder (Netherlands), Pawel Tomaszewski (Poland), Jasper Blom (Netherlands) and Hanna Paulsberg (Norway).
The double bass player leads this stable trio formed in Amsterdam made up of two excellent national musicians, Xavi Torres on piano and Joan Terol on drums, both of whom are top-level musicians from the millennial generation located in an artistic stage with great projection and expansion.
Xavi Torres , who comes from a classical background, has a lyrical piano ability comparable to Brad Mehldau and Keith Jarrett, as well as an eye on new languages, and great sensitivity when it comes to phrasing and instrument control. Joan Terol is one of those solid and intuitive musicians, with a lot of curiosity and openness, who has developed his own resources when it comes to playing.
“My role in the trio and in particular on this album, in addition to being a composer, has been to be one more piece in the puzzle that these compositions form, instead of acting as a soloist accompanied by two musicians monopolizing the main voice. At the time of composing and playing I have tried to have the role of the composer who has to orchestrate for these three instruments, in which each one has thousands of exploitable resources and different details creating a balance between the parts ”, says Pere Bujosa .
The theme that gives the album its name is Wabi-Sabi, a Japanese word that means beauty in imperfection , and it is the central part of the concept that the composer uses. Although it is not intended to be a conceptual album with a narrative line, each theme encompasses an idea or concept in itself inspired by the ideas of sociologist Zygmun Bauman (1925, Poland) about the liquid society in which each reality is formed by infinite dimensions in movement with its tensions and strains.
"...Some time ago I reflected that in order to develop something that could evolve and help me mature, I needed as stable a training as possible in order to try to develop a language and a sound of my own," adds the musician.
The album consists of seven self-composed compositions and an interlude in which he introduces the song Zukunft, where you can hear the voice of Zygmunt Bauman in an interview with samplers of improvised piano tracks by Xavi Torres, in addition to some electronic effects. All the compositions are infused with rhythm and lyricism with a play of rhythmic layers, a metaphor for the emotionally challenging moments of everyday life. The tracks are recorded by Xavi Torres and Joan Terol with the special collaboration of Lucas Martínez Membrilla to tenor saxophone on the theme Blues Per Mon Pare , a composition by Pere Bujosa written for his father and inspired by Charles Mingus.
“The members of the trio develop an attraction to musicality and sensitivity both together and individually, in addition to deep training. This fact has made it easier to develop ideas quickly when composing and testing more risky and experimental things ”, says Pere Bujosa.
The compositions of the album reflect the rhythmic exploration of some aesthetic resources such as polyrhythms, as heard in the songs Zukunft, Polyrhythmic Dream, Orwhurm and Wabi-Sabi in which this pattern of textures resonate. Wabi-Sabi in particular is made up of asymmetric elements, which together make sense and seek minimalism through few resources.
"This album has also allowed me to add some of my flirtations with electronics in a subtle way, trying to evoke groups that drink from sound manipulation such as Thom Yorke, Mars Volta or Flying lotus," underlines the composer.
The artistic work of cover design and artwork consisting of a book of water-based ink paints that accompanies the album, is in charge of the Mallorcan artist María Antonia Mateu Salvá. Each of them with a small reference to each song and the meaning of the title associated with the corresponding suminagashi , generated from the sound vibrations generated by each of the pieces that make up the album.
The album has been recently selected with the award for the Best Jazz Record 2019 of the Balearic Islands by Enderrock Magazine."
Begoña Villalobos (June 20, 2020)
http://inandout-jazz.es
