Flash Reviews - AVA Trio / Secret Mall / Sonar


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AVA TRIO - DIGGING THE SAND (Marocco Music, 2019)

Personnel - Giuseppe Doronzo: baritone sax, mizmar; East Ekincioglu: double bass; Pino Basile: percussion, cupaphon.

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AVA Trio draws its routines from the world jazz genre and ancient folk, giving it a slightly avant-garde sense. The group’s members: Italian-born, Amsterdam-based baritone saxophonist Giuseppe Doronzo, Turkish bassist East Ekincioglu, and Swiss frame drum percussionist Pino Basile, a new addition, spread their eclectic influences (Anouar Brahem, Rabih Abou Khalil) across the eight compositions that compose their second album, Digging the Sand. You’ll find incantatory Eastern spells throughout, brought by ritualistic rhythms and the intervallic exoticism of specific scales. Yet, Western music elements are also present. Some tunes feel very riffery and would benefit from further outside travels and timbral variations. The record’s highlight is Doronzo’s “Fadiouth”, where polyphonic baritone drones on the outset and meaty articulations lead us to a 5/4 groove, but the divergent title track is also memorable due to the eerily dark droning, somber lines, and odd sonic practices with prepared double bass and cupaphon. [B]


SECRET MALL - SYSTEM 32 (Self Produced, 2019)

Personnel - Alfredo Colon: EWI; Edward Gavitt: guitar; Steve Williams: bass; Andres Valbuena: drums.

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Secret Mall is a New York-based quartet with a gift to blend genres in an effortless way. The material of System 32, their sophomore full length album, consists of cohesive narratives with a keen awareness of style, texture, and space. The groups’s readiness stands out on pieces such as the easygoing “Dubai”, which boasts a strong bass presence, vivid soloing from EWI and guitar, and fragmented unison lines that create the necessary space to push the drummer to the center; “2007”, an affable, ripe crossover effort where the theme’s  pop/rock melodicism is switched to bursts of funk during the improvisations; and “Delorean ’81”, an organic fusion plasticity affected by retro synth pop and feel-good smooth funk. Apart from the original compositions, you can hear trendy vibraphonist Joel Ross dishing out an effects-drenched solo interlude between the sluggish “Barking Like It’s 1999”, harmonically powered on occasion, and the blossomy closer, “Mononoke”, which arrives passionately covered in rock, funk, and electronic music. Strong levels of interplay are found everywhere. [B]


SONAR - TRANCEPORTATION VOL. I (RareNoise, 2019)

Personnel - David Torn: electric guitar, live looping; Stephan Thelen: tritone guitar; Bernhard Wagner: tritone guitar; Christian Kuntner: tritone bass; Manuel Pasquinelli: drums, percussion.

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Tranceportation Vol.1 marks the second collaboration between the Swiss group Sonar and American guitarist/producer David Torn. The follow-up to Vortex might not be as enthralling as its predecessor, but is still a fitting album, systematically arranged with multi-layered post-rock textures, looping phrases, odd-metered tritone cycles, and strong rhythmic pulses. The clinical guitar work on “Labyrinth” is expanded with looming attacks of distortion, while the instrumentation on “Partitions” is relentlessly implemented with a pedal-like groove. The slow-burner “Red Sky” makes subtle adjustments in its ambient electro-rock demarcations and brings crying guitar licks to the forefront. In turn, the prog-rock exertion “Tunnel Drive” ends the recording with acerbic, funky guitar fragments on top of the dynamic bass/drums coalition. This is great for those seeking a more cerebral kind of listening experience. [B]