La Permanencia De Los Ecos (The Permanence of Echoes) is a 34-minute composition by prolific Argentinian, Berlin-based tenor sax player Camila NebBia for an ad-hoc quintet of New York-based quintet – violist Joanna Mattrey, synth and electronics player Cecilia Lopez, pianist Maya Keren and drummer Lesley Mok with Nebbia, who also adds poetic spoken words. This composition was recorded in August 2022.
As its title suggests, this lyrical and introspective, chamber composition addresses «echoes that keep reverberating through the years, across time and generations, endlessly repeating themselves». Nebbia adds that this piece is captivated by the quest to unearth the profound reverberations of all that appear to fade away such as «memory and forgetfulness, endless repetitions, the legacy of our ancestors, and the profound impact of migration all intertwine in this composition». La Permanencia De Los Ecos leaves enough space for individual free improvisations that enrich its skeletal, delicate and emotionally reverberating veins. This fine quintet realizes beautifully Nebbia’s ambitious sonic vision and reflects the relentless pursuit to discover the enduring remnants of existence.
Voices features a trio of Hamburg-based Vietnamese multimedia composer, improviser and player of the traditional dan bau (one-string zither), Chinese, Louisiana-based multimedia-live electronics player Fiona Xue Ju with Nebbia on tenor sax. The album was recorded at HfMT Hamburg in March 2023. The album offers 12 short free improvisations where the three improvisers fully immersed themselves in the moment, allowing for a natural and unfiltered exploration of spontaneous sounds and textures. The unique instrumentation, with the extended breathing techniques of Nebbia, triggers an unpredictable and otherworldly palette of sounds. But the dynamics of this trio encourage resonant and harmonious dialogs, and, clearly, stress the immediate, urgent and often, even innocent joy of music-making as well as the wisdom of encapsulating these unique voices into enigmatic conversations.
Diminished Borders brings together – though, remotely – three like-minded experimental musicians with a strong affinity to the jazz legacy – American, Richmond, Virginia-based drummer-percussionist-vocalist Samuel Goff, Los Angeles-baed American-Japanese sax player Patrick Shiroishi and Nebbia (who recorded before with Shiroishi, The Human Being As A Fragile Article. Trouble In Mind, 2021), who also adds poetic spoken words and designed the cover, based in Lyon, France, during the recording. The title of the album was inspired by the book Spit Temple: The Selected Performances of Chilean poet-performer-improviser Cecilia Vicuña who often wrote about borders being crossed. This trio says that «borders mean so much in this world. The piece of land you currently stand on dictates the fate of your life. Crossing borders oftentimes means life or death. We would like to see the importance of borders…. ’diminished’».
Despite the geographic distance, this trio managed to diminish sonic borders and individual approaches and suggest its open and inclusive interpretation of jazz-related improvisations. These improvisations range from chaotic and manic free jazz onslaughts to playful, spiritual-like improvisations and introspective and lyrical textures in which Nebia and Shiroishi articulate deep, emotional and melancholic conversations. The interplay of Nebbia and Shiuroishi is natural and organic, soaring beautifully over the powerful polyrhythmic patterns of Goff, and makes it hard to believe that they were not in the same space at the time of the recording. Check the mysterious and evocative «Metaphors In Space» to get a sense of the profound dynamics of the trio.
Eyal Hareuveni
Camila Nebbia (tenor saxophone, vocals), Joanna Mattrey (viola), Cecilia Lopez (synthesizer, electronics), Maya Keren (piano), Lesley Mok (drums), Tam Thi Pham (Dan Bau), Fiona Xue Ju (electronics), Patrick Shiroishi (saxophones), Samuel Goff (drums, percussion, vocals)
