This title and the cover of this apn-European free-improv quartet is borrowed from a painting with a same name of Rotterdam-based artist Chris Ripken. Like the painting, the introspective aesthetics of the quartet are multi-layered, detailed and demands focused listening-observation-meditation in order to decipher its richness and colorfulness.
The «In Layers» quartet matches Portuguese. Lisbon-based guitarist Marcelo dos Reis and trumpeter Luís Vicente, both have collaborated before in the Fail Better! Quintet, Chamber 4 and the FRAME trio, with the Amsterdam-based Dutch drummer Onno Gevaert, who plays with Vicente in the Twenty One 4tet, known also from the punk jazz trio Cactus Truck, and Icelandic pianist Kristján Martinsson. The quartet debut live album was recorded at Zaal 100 club in Amsterdam on April 2016.
The collective improvisations, all titled after substances, techniques and alterations of painting, adopt an organic, emphatic and slow-cooking strategy that highlights the distinct personal vocabularies of the four musicians. Vicente has the most arresting sound and commanding technique. His muted trumpet produces ethereal and strange sounds, sometimes even tortured ones, but every breath of him tells volumes, setting nuanced and rich cinematic atmospheres. Govaert reserved drum work dictate the dramatic syntax of these loose improvisations. Dos Reis insistent strumming resonates gently Vincente breaths and the colors dramatic vein. Martinsson ties these pieces with structural ides.
Eyal Hareuveni
Onno Govaert (dr), Marcelo dos Reis (g), Luís Vincente (tp), Kristján Martinsson (p)
