The cosmopolitan, experimental and free-improv scene of Amsterdam encourages unconventional musical meetings. Escape documents the duo of British guitarist Andy Moor (of The Ex fame, known for his ongoing collaborations with electronics player Yannis Kyriakides and sound poet Anne James Chaton and is the head of the Unsounds label) and Polish pianist Marta Warelis (who released her debut solo album, A Grain on Earth, on the Relative Pitch label in 2022 as well as the debut album of her OMAWI trio – with Dutch double bass player Wilbert De Joode and drummer Onno Govaert – in 2023).
Escape is a collection of seven free improvisations recorded at the historical zaal100 in Amsterdam in June 2022. Moor (who also took the cover photo) and Warelis are versatile improvisers who explore the corresponding, resonant and percussive timbres of the electric guitar and the acoustic piano, often played inside with objects attached to its strings, with great imagination. These improvisations unfold like conversations between intimate friends who know each other inside out and can exchange – or collide, in the most physical sense – thoughtful ideas, deep feelings and fleeting moods in an unassuming manner or a nervous and twangy chat. Moor and Warelis treat their instruments as sonic generators that can produce infinite, complementary sounds at any given moment, none of them sounds conventional or familiar but all make sense at the distinct moment in which they were played.
The trio of German clarinetist Tobias Klein (of the Spinifex sextet, playing here on bass and contrabass clarinets, He also took the cover photo), Warelis and Puerto Rican drummer-percussionist Frank Rosaly (who recorded before with Warelis, Sunday At De Ruimte, Doek Row, 2021, with double bass player Aaron Lumley and sax player John Dikeman) has been playing since 2020. tenderness is the debut album of the trio and it was recorded at the Splendor club in Amsterdam in March 2022.
The title of the album faithfully captures the atmosphere of this album. The chamber, intimate and personal music reflects the remarkable, deep chemistry and the democratic dynamics of this trio. Furthermore, the music blurs the distinction between free improvised music and contemporary, experimental music. The trio allows the extended pieces to develop and breathe gently and patiently, and explore its many nuanced and inventive gestures and colors in their own accord as well as the most delicate sonic palettes of the clarinets, piano and drum set. «avec toute la tendresse possible» (with all the tenderness possible) as one of the pieces is titled, or in a manner that stresses that this trio is stronger than the sum of its parts, just as the title of the last piece, «gestalt switch» suggests. And only in this last piece the trio switch briefly into more intense and restless interplay, but as inquisitive and imaginative as before.
Eyal Hareuveni
Andy Moor (guitar), Marta Warelis (piano), Tobias Klein (bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet), Frank Rosaly (drums, percussion)
