Il Ritorno Del Angelo (the Return of the Angel) is a new, Dublin-based quartet featuring Ukraine-born vocalist-vocal artist Olesya Zdorovetska, Irish sax player Nick Roth, Japan-born pianist Izumi Kimura and British double master Barry Guy (who has been working closely with Kimura in recent years). The debut album of this quartet, Spring & Asura, reflects its interest in experimenting with modern composition, free improvisation and poetry. The album was recorded at Meadow Studios in Weiterstadt, Germany, in December 2023 and features artwork by English painter William Pownall.
Spring & Asura offers four intriguing pieces, each one based on a poem. But the conversational, collective dynamics of this acoustic quartet as well as its usage of extended breathing, vocal, percussive and bowing techniques push these pieces into deeper fathoms of meaning beyond the verbal, asking to release the dormant drama of the poems and unlock their reserves of emotion. The opening, enigmatic piece «Le Cercle» (The Circle) is after a poem by French poetess Eugène Guillevic, and was chosen by Roth; Zdorovetska chose her own, wave-like, cathartic poem «I, Lethe» (sung in Ukrainian); Kimura chose Japanese novelist, poet, and writer (and also agricultural science teacher, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social activist) Kenji Miyazawa’s contemplative «Spring & Asura» (春と修羅, recited in Japanese); and Guy chose the sensual «Il Ritorno del Angelo» by his lifelong collaborator, poet Francesca Meks Taylor.
These pieces highlight the one-of-a-kind, commanding musical personalities of Il Ritorno Del Angelo. Zdorovetska has a Dadaistic, often wordless, vocal art energy that brings to mind Yoko Ono in her ululations, Can’s vocalist Damo Suzuki on the iconic Tago Mago, or the free jazz phrasing of Patty Waters, but with sky-piercing crescendos that are hers alone. Kimura’s piano ranges from subtle whirlpools of tonality to Keith Tippett-like stormy adventures across the keyboard. Roth sounds as if channeling the spirits of John Gilmore and Evan Parker with frenzied breaths of high emotion when he attempts to find sounds that exist beyond the confines of the metal of his horn. And Guy always finds the perfect sound at the precise time, extracted from the double bass through attack, pluck and frottage, reflecting a relationship with his instrument that’s full of friction.
The interplay of this quartet is ecstatic, risk-taking and poetic, constantly shifting as the colors of a kaleidoscope, with an almost telepathic understanding. The outstanding Zdorovetska, Roth, Kimura and Guy make Spring & Asura an inspired masterpiece.
Eyal Hareuveni
Olesya Zdorovetska (vocals), Nick Roth (saxophones), Izumi Kimura (piano), Barry Guy (double bass)
