Trio Atlântica was formed in 2024 when Portuguese alto sax hero José Lencastre planned his tour in São Paulo, Brazil, and contacted local drummer and electronics player Wagner Ramos, seeking possibilities to collaborate with local musicians. Ramos immediately matched his long-time partner, Luiz Galvão.

This new trio performed once at Mocergo in Santo André in October 2024 and recorded its debut album, Atlântica, the next day at Estúdio Ori in São Paulo. Ramos comments in his liner notes that «what was supposed to be just a meeting became a strong bond, a friendship born of music, and a visceral sound that pulses with energy».

And the music is indeed powerful and intense. Lencastre brings his soulful, melodic free jazz cries and blows, but he meets on the other side of the Atlantic a completely different approach and sonic palettes.  Galvão, who is a member of the local Nomade Orquestra and the Otis Trio that blends jazz, groove, and experimentalism, opts for effects-laden, abstract soundscapes. Ramos, who is also an electronics engineer, has a career marked by research into various aspects of Black music—from rap to jazz, from soul to samba, alongside an interest in experimental music, free jazz, and free improvisation, adds raw, noisy, and disorienting electronics to his fractured rhythmic patterns.

These colliding approaches to sound, music-making, and the flow of music, alongside the openness of Lencastre, Galvão, and Ramos, charge the recording session with a stimulating tension and allow Trio Atlântica to find its elusive grooves.

Eyal Hareuveni

Luiz Galvão (guitar); José Lencastre (saxophone); Wagner Ramos (drums, electronics)