The Barcelona-based Phicus – guitarist (and sound artist) Ferran Fages, double bass player Àlex Revirieg (both collaborate in another trio, Ràdium Trio, with pianist Agustí Fernández) and drummer Vasco Trilla – has been making noise – literally – in recent years. Phicus is not a standard free-improv guitar trio, despite its intense and brutal sonic spectrum that may draw references to seminal trios like Fred Frith’s Massacre (with bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Fred Maher) or Raoul Bjørkenheim’s Scorch Trio (with bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love), but a trio that, obviously, playing loud but not for the sake of being loud or abrasive.
Accordingly, Phicus, once describes as «Keiji Haino meets AMM», states that its bold mission is to «speculate with silence, pull the noise out of joint, rearrange the timbre, scrap the tradition to explore its very own harmonic universe forged of the energy of a blazing forest into flame, where solely simple, lanceolate, obverse-shining leaves remain alive». «Solid» is the fourth album of Phicus (not counting the self-released «Bootleg Series, Vol. 1», 2020), recorded at Rosazul Studio, Barcelona, in April 2019, and following collaborations with Swedish sax player Martin Küchen (Sumpflegende, Fundacja Słuchaj, 2019) and Russian sax player Ilia Belorukov («K(nо́)t», Intonema, 2018).
«Solid» open with ritualist and meditative texture of «HgO» that brings Phicus close to the metal drones of SUNN O))). The rest of the pieces opt for a more explosive kind of interplay, heavy and harsh, that puts Fages’ brutal and feedback-laden guitar in the center and wraps it with the possessed but solidifying bowing of Reviriego and the wild drumming of Trilla, as on the noisy chaos of «Zn». But even on the energetic eruption of «Zn», Phicus knows also how to break this kind of fierce interplay down to a molecular level, with a surprising sense of restraint and elegance. On «Au» Phicus even suggests a twisted kind of ballad that floats over a massive, hypnotic pulse. «HBr» returns to the mysterious terrains of SUNN O))) drones with Trilla’s sheets of cymbals. The last «Ag» demonstrates the open but very addictive approach of Phicus, matching the heavy but contemplative guitar lines of Fages with the exquisite multiphonics of Reviriego’s bass and massive but completely free drumming of Trilla.
Eyal Hareuveni
Ferran Fages (g), Àlex Reviriego (b), Vasco Trilla (dr)
