The Portuguese, Lisbon-based Voltaic Trio was formed amidst the global Covid-19 global pandemic and features trumpeter and electronics player Luís Guerreiro, known from local ensembles Dead Vortex, Ernesto Rodriguez’ Variable Geometry Orchestra and Ensemble MIA, electric guitarist Jorge Nuno, known from Uivo Zebra band and his collaborations with sax player José Lencastre, and drummer João Valinho, who also collaborated before with Lencastre and Rodriguez, played also with Ensemble MIA, and recently played on «Light Machina» with guitarist Marcelo Dos Reis and trumpeter Luís Vicente (MultiKulti, 2021). Valinho also did the cover artwork. «290421» is the debut album of the trio and was recorded at Namouche studios in Lisbon in February and April 2021.
Voltaic Trio is true to its title and is fed by its electric power and draws its inspiration from psychedelic and prog-rock, metal, jazz and free improvisation, The intense dynamics and sound of the trio are riddled with electronic distortion and relentless percussive fervor in a high-intensity discharge. «290421» (there is an asteroid, 2005 TH76 whose number is 290421, that was discovered by Catalina Sky Survey from the telescope the Mountains of Santa Catalina in Arizona, United States, in May 2005) features a volatile, one-piece that lasts 44-minutes.
The processed, otherworldly trumpet sound of Guerreiro (he often speaks-shouts into the mouthpiece) entangles the distorted, metallic electric guitar of Nuno and the manic and powerful drumming of Valinho, and often brings to mind the work of the late Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo with Peter Brötzmann’s Die Like a Dog quartet. The trio is committed to channeling its distinct experimental tendencies into a fiery sonic maelstrom, briefly cut with a few sparse passages, but resumes, again and again, its tsunami-like brutal sonic waves, until the inevitable catharsis.
An impressive statement, but, clearly, not for the faint of heart.
Eyal Hareuveni
Luis Guerreiro (tp, elec), Jorge Nuno (el.g), João Valinho (dr)
