Label: Self released, 2021

Personnel - Adrián Moncada: piano; Alistair Payne: trumpet; Federico Calcagno: bass clarinet; José Soares: alto saxophone; Pedro Ivo Ferreira: double bass; Nick Thessalonikefs: drums.

Spanish pianist and composer Adrián Moncada, who lives in Amsterdam since 2014, releases Inhabitable Imagination, an auspicious first album inspired by architecture and its multiple possibilities. The shifting landscapes and organic forms portrayed in the album’s seven originals find him in salutary communication with an international crew of likeminded partners that includes the Portuguese altoist José Soares, Scottish trumpeter Alistair Payne, Italian bass clarinetist Federico Calcagno, Brazilian double bassist Pedro Ivo Ferreira and Greek drummer Nick Thessalonikefs.

Introducing “The Bearable Heaviness of Being” with persuasive articulation, the pianist brings his instrument to preponderance with a focused arpeggiated flux at the base of a groove, in five, over which twisting horn lines develop in parallel. The compositional principle is confident and the theme statement evolves with admirable consistency. Payne shows fearlessness here when he climbs to the upper register after the conversational approach of the first moments.

The title cut undergoes a significant number of changes in its design, going from purely reflective to sanguinely grooving to balletically agile. The group still embraces a shady solemnity before concluding with a note of humor. Soares earns the spotlight here, etching fine lines on top of the rhythmic groove.

In a related move, “Emerging the Structure” blends rigorous instrumental organization and free will, having the inaugural fragmented pulsation stabilized for a skittering bass clarinet solo and ravishing exchanges between piano, trumpet and alto. “Platforming” also relishes with Calcagno’s eloquence on the bass clarinet, but prior to that, Soares and Payne engage in a duologue that soon leads to a contrapuntal ostinato-driven movement that includes the rest of the band. The bridge is made with a modal swinging passage that reminded me Andrew Hill’s intriguing settings.

Distinct in tone, the classical-influenced “Shadow of Tomorrow” is not so optimistic in its views, conjuring a prophetic foreboding that insists on low-pitched and buzzing sounds. Both the dark arco bass and left piano pedals contribute heavily to that effect. At cross purposes, the energy-filled “NGC 6357”, titled over a nebula located 8,000 years away from the Earth, is a post-bop ride tempered with descriptive personal narratives.

Moncada’s competent work is not just about structure and form but also interconnected ideas built with tension and release.