«Fish Wool» is the product of a unique trio. Two horns – Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and Brazilian tenor and soprano sax player Yed Gibson plus Catalan percussionist Vasco Trilla. Gibson and Trilla have collaborated constantly in different formats over the recent years, including as a duo («Antenna», Multikulti Project 2017), and Trilla also recorded before with Santos Silva («The Paradox of Hedonism», with sax player Tom Chant, Discordian, 2015), but this is the first time these three musicians recorded as a trio. This rare kind of instrumentation enables this trio to offer fresh textures and imaginative games with melodic themes and counterpoint hooks.
«Fish Wool» was recorded at Salão Brazil, Coimbra, Portugal in January 2019 and features seven improvised pieces, credited to the trio, but based on strong themes. The opening one «Box Jelly Fish» offers an open and intense improvisation of the two horns over a playful, chamber texture with minimalist, ritualist touches of Trilla. On «Puffer Fish» this kind of minimalist, resonating percussive touches charges this piece with a nervous energy that sends Santos Silva and Gibson for a fierce duel. The following brief «Stone Fish» and «Great White Shark» experiment with an ethereal, industrial-like, extended breathing techniques framed within lyrical themes and chaotic percussive patterns.
These elaborate games of deconstruction and reconstruction of distinct ideas and themes and rhythmic patterns are further explored on the extended «Piranha» and «Bull Shark». «Piranha» erupts with spiritual Ayler-ian cries spiced with Brazilian, light but playful dance moves, and fragmented rhythmic patterns. On the surprisingly quiet «Bull Shark» Silva Santos and Gibson references at first abstract, electronic drones while Trilla injects inventive, highly resonating bells, but later this piece slowly morphs into an emotional, melodic song, now with the Trilla adding electronic-like percussive sounds. This brilliant album ends with «Wolf Fish», a short song with a touching, song-like and folk-like theme that brings to mind the compositions of Don Cherry.
Eyal Hareuveni
Susana Santos Silva (tp), Yedo Gibson (ts, ss), Vasco Trilla (dr, perc)
