Spirit in Spirit is the free improvising trio of Portuguese sax hero José Lencastre with Dutch double bass player Raoul Van der Weide and drummer Onno Govaert, and Cinematico is the sophomore album of the trio, recorded at Raoul Van der Weide’s Atelier 5 in October 2022, and it follows Live At Zaal 100 (FMR, 2019). This trio already established its aesthetics of playful and unpredictable collective improvisations that offer sonic labyrinths based on trust, light, sensitivity, risk, communication and transparency. Spirit in Spirit is well-versed with the legacy of modern and free jazz and in its open interplay, and especially in the extended, slow-burning opening piece «Influences» or the lyrical yet dramatic «Vision» you can trace echoes of Ornette Coleman’s harmolodics and the powerful melodic lines of Charles Mingus. The shorter pieces focus on sonic searches within the collective improvisations or ecstatic and intense eruptions and highlight the strong voices of the trio and their imaginative sonic palettes, with Lencastre’s gift to articulate instant melodies, Van der Weide with his powerful playing and percussive objects, and Govaert driving polyrhythmic patterns.
Mistério in Lisbon documents a spontaneous meeting between Polish, Warsaw-based pianist Andrzej Rejman and Lencastre, recorded at Namouche Studio in Lisbon in March 2023. The music was freely improvised but gravitated towards lyrical and emotional song formats, often reflecting the mournful and melancholic Portuguese Fado (like the name of the opening piece) and the more reserved Polish kind of melancholia, with grace and elegance. The eight short pieces of Mistério in Lisbon capture faithfully the immediate, mysterious rapport between Rejman and Lencastre in this session, as both find a warm and expressive common voice.
The Almost Invariably trio brings together Argentinian guitarist Luciano Bagnasco with Portuguese sax player Lencastre and drummer João Valinho. The self-titled debut album of this free improvised trio was recorded at Namouche studio in January 2023 and was released by Bagnasco, who initiated the recording and took the cover artwork photo. Valinho did the art and the design. True to its DIY aesthetics, the five pieces are titled as the trio name and the album title and all offer the strong, personal voices of Bagnasco, Lencastre and Valinho in open and calm and emphatic, conversational dynamics. Bagnasco’s sound is rooted in the jazz guitar legacy but Lencastre and especially Valinho push the interplay into more ‘out’ and free-form terrains with their array of extended techniques. On the third and fifth pieces, Lencastre and Valinho manage to take Bagnasco on wild, effects-laden psychedelic trips.
Eyal Hareuveni
José Lencastre (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone), Raoul Van der Weide (double bass, percussion objects), Onno Govaert (drums), Andrzej Rejman (piano), Luciano Bagnasco (guitar), João Valinho (drums)
