«Dawn to Dusk» is the third album of the French-Portuguese free-improvising quartet Chamber 4, featuring French violinist Théo Ceccaldi, brother cellist Valentin Ceccaldi (both are of the Al Tricollectif musicians collective, and both also play together in Théo Ceccaldi Trio and Théo Ceccaldi Freaks, as a duo and in the quartet qÖÖlp), and Portuguese trumpeter Luís Vicente snd guitarist Marcelo dos Reis (both Vicente and dos Reis also collaborate in the Frame Trio, Fail Better! and In Layers). Like the two previous albums of the quartet, this album was recorded live, this time at Antiga Igreja do Convento S. Francisco during the Jazz ao Centro Festival in Coimbra in October 2020.

«Dawn to Dusk» is the first of a series of releases resulting from the residency that brought together musicians from the French Al Tricollectif and a group of 5 Portuguese musicians during the 18th edition of Jazz ao Centro in 2020. The 24-minute, opening piece «Dawn» presents the chamber side of Chamber 4, reserved, patient and introspective, with only Vicente playing as a free agent. Slowly, the dynamics become more intense, and then Chamber 4 flows in urgent and loose waves, but still, stressing the close and immediate, profound interplay that this quartet has established, as the dissonant gestures of the Ceccaldi brothers contrast Vicente with dos Reis’ lyrical ideas.

The short «To» suggests a series of brief playful games of the quartet, all highlight its genre-binding, sonic breadth. The last «Dusk» deepens the lyrical veins with the Ceccaldi articulating the theme and, again, Vicente acts as a charismatic agent provocateur. But here the dynamics here are more open and tense and emphasize the individual qualities of each of the four musicians, and, obviously, of Chamber 4, as a collective with its own sound and aesthetics.

Eyal Hareuveni

Théo Ceccaldi (vio), Luís Vicente (tp), Valentin Ceccaldi (c), Marcelo dos Reis (g)