Label: Clean Feed, 2021
Personnel - Ricardo Toscano: alto saxophone; Albert Cirera: tenor and soprano saxophone; Andre Fernandes: electric guitar; Pedro Branco: electric guitar; Benny Lackner: piano, electronics; Nelson Cascais: double bass; João Hasselberg: electric bass, electronics; João Lencastre: drums, composition.
Lisbon-based drummer and composer João Lencastre is known for his Communion project, which garnered a great deal of attention throughout the years and cemented his reputation as an adventurous bandleader. American jazz heavyweights such as altoist David Binney, bassist Thomas Morgan and pianist Jacob Sacks popped in for some time in the past, but this new record features new collaborators from the blistering Portuguese scene such as the saxophonists Ricardo Toscano and Albert Cirera, the bassists João Hasselberg and Nelson Cascais, and the guitarists André Fernandes and Pedro Branco. Rounding up the octet is the Berlin-born pianist Benny Lackner.
Consisting solely of Lencastre originals, the album hits the stride with “Clouds”, which comes immersed in enigmatic atmospherics until a magnetic bass groove stimulates both the horn players and the guitarists, making them loosen up in a profuse communion. It finishes up as it began, with electronics.
“Insomnia” alternates between a contrapuntal kinetic passage that seems inspired by EDM and an equally methodic, if softer, piano-bass-drums flux that supports Toscano’s alto saxophone narration. Our focus is then drawn toward the guitarists, one extemporizing over a more abstract texture, and the other over a vamp that leads to the final theme statement.
“The Mystery Path” offers us the pleasurable mystery of not knowing where the group is taking us. It features passionate piano and saxophone rides skating on top of persistent droning that, in turn, is underpinned by skittering drumming. And near the conclusion, there’s this stealthy indie rock motion that sneaks in and changes the meter from four to three.
Whereas “Mitote” is a fine mixture of afrobeat, avant-jazz and punk rock, “No Filter” plunges at some point into a rockified, asymmetrically divided beat-cycle (encouraging a magnetic piano solo by Lackner) that comes in the sequence of an introductory section with syncopated brushed drums, self-contained piano and breezy reeds.
This musical expedition ends with the title track, “Unlimited Dreams”, whose early dirge-like lament mutates into a rock strut with vamping harmonic shifts and peremptory juxtaposed lines that provoke and stimulate.
Lencastre continues to cull modern aesthetics from his creative mind in a sensational, forceful showcase. My guess is that you’ll be enthralled by his group’s agility, precision and latitude.
A-
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Clouds ► 03 - The Mystery Path ► 06 - Unlimited Dreams