Alma Tree is a spiritual, cross-generational percussion trio featuring legendary American drummer-percussionist Ra Kalam Bob Moses, and European drummers-percussionist – Portuguese Pedro Melo Alves and Catalan Vasco Trilla. The idea for this trio rose after Moses posted on Facebook in 2020 a list of his recent discoveries of innovative and visionary drummers, including Alves and Trilla, who inspired him to keep evolving and go deeper into his art.

Moses already managed to record – remotely and during the Covid-19 pandemic – a duo double album with Trilla, Singing Icons (Astral Spirits, 2023). The trio Alma Tree got together for the first time in 2022, on a Portugal tour defined by four live dates and a recording at CARA OJM Studios in Porto in May 2022. On Sonic Alchemy Suprema Moses’ playing is on the right channel, Trilla in the center and Alves on the left. Local Portuguese sax players – tenorist Julius Gabriel, altoist and flutist João Pedro Brandão, and altoist José Soares join the trio on five pieces.

Sonic Alchemy Suprema is mostly improvised but sounds like a magical union of sonic magicians (or celestial madmen, as other pieces suggest) who offer an untimely and hypnotic healing ritual, «One With Infinite Space», as one of the pieces is titled. Moses, Alves and Trilla explore, each in his strong, personal manner, imaginative extended techniques, sharp instincts and unique sound palettes. Still, the spirit of this inspired meeting favors profound and unpredictable dialogs that evoke powerful images, cosmic chants and sensual dances, a great sense of freedom and intoxicating grooves.

Moses listed in his list of great innovative drummers Milford Graves, and like in Graves’ spiritual practice, Sonic Alchemy Suprema may heal the aching pulse of our globe.

Eyal Hareuveni

Ra Kalam Bob Moses (drums, percussion), Vasco Trilla (drums, percussion), Pedro Melo Alves (drums, percussion), João Pedro Brandão (alto saxophone, flute), José Soares (alto saxophone), Julius Gabriel (tenor saxophone).