Label: Clepsydra Records, 2026
Personnel - Gabriel Vicéns: guitar; Roman Filiu: alto saxophone; Vitor Gonçalves: piano; Rick Rosato: bass; E.J. Strickland: drums; Victor Pablo: percussion.
Niebla is the fifth album by New York-based Puerto Rican guitarist and composer Gabriel Vicéns, who reunites the core lineup from his 2021 release The Way We Are Created. The multifaceted sextet features Cuban saxophonist Roman Filiu, bassist Rick Rosato, drummer E.J. Strickland, and percussionist Victor Pablo, with Brazilian pianist Vitor Gonçalves stepping in for Glenn Zaleski. Across nine strong originals, Vicéns draws on Afro–Puerto Rican bomba and plena rhythms, auteur cinema, and painting as sources of inspiration.
Stylistically varied, the album opens with the vaguely introspective “El Fin de La Noche”, the first of three understated, acoustic guitar-driven pieces placed at the beginning, middle, and end of the record, all shaped with elegance and subtlety. On the title track, “Niebla”, Vicéns switches to electric guitar and ventures into more aggressive terrain, highlighted by contrapuntal saxophone lines and a slightly offbeat groove shared by piano, bass, and drums. Modern in scope and rich in harmonic color, the piece bears a spiky edge reminiscent of the leaping melodic contours of Austrian composer Anton Webern. Vicéns’ solo unfolds with chromatic nuance and intervallic boldness, while Filiu’s saxophone balances fluidity with fragmentation. Vibrant percussive attacks toward the end help ground the piece decisively.
“Vejilante”, inspired by a Puerto Rican folkloric figure, unfolds in an odd meter, opening with a compelling patterned dialogue between guitar and saxophone. Silence plays an active role, and a floating midsection explores meditative rubato exchanges before the original groove returns in support of Gonçalves’s animated piano statement. The 15-minute “Ramaje” centers on an engrossing riff within a five-beat framework. Filiu’s solo brims with invention, followed by Strickland’s drum feature that leads into serene passages marked by stillness and ambiguity. A sweeping solo percussion section drawing on the Cuban güiro tradition concludes the piece in vamping mode.
“Guaiza”, informed by the piano music of Morton Feldman, creates a seductive atmosphere over a tight groove, featuring a resonant bass solo and motivic guitar explorations. The uptempo “Stray Dogs” takes its cue from Tsai Ming-liang’s film and the changui rhythm from Guantánamo, Cuba. The band excels in crisp unison lines, dynamic motion, and sharp accentuation, with Vicéns and Filiu trading vivid ideas in an intense musical conversation. Latin inflections become especially pronounced during the piano solo.
With deep command of tone, originality, and risk, Vicéns gets you hooked in contemporary compositions that, not fixed in tradition, breathes and invigorates in equal measure, revealing a composer firmly in control of his evolving artistic voice.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Niebla ► 03 - Vejilante ► 07 - Guaiza ► 08 - Stray Dogs