Label: Intakt Records, 2024
Personnel - Marta Sanchez: piano; Chris Tordini: bass; Savannah Harris: drums.
Spanish-born, New York-based pianist and composer Marta Sanchez embarks on a fresh chapter in her career with Perpetual Void, her seventh album as a leader and the first in the piano trio format since 2008. Departing from her previous projects leading a forward-thinking two-horn frontline quintet from 2015 to 2022, which resulted in four remarkable albums, Sanchez now presents a stripped-down approach that remains bold in its aesthetic, holding ground with the avant-garde and modern composition.
The titles of some tracks hint at the challenges Sanchez has faced in recent years, including loss (the unexpected death of her mother in 2020 had already been emphasized in the album SAAM), grief, anxiety, and insomnia. “Prelude to Grief” sets the tone at the same time that introduces “The Absence of People You Long For”, where Sanchez’s trio mates, bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Savannah Harris, interlock moves with accuracy. Their pensive musing extends through “The End of That Period”, with its occasional shape-shifting dynamics and tension, and continues in “Prelude to Heartbreak”, which channels a contemporary classical atmosphere through dreamlike yet restless piano cascades.
The album opening cuts are mesmerizing: “I Don’t Want to Live the Wrong Life and Then Die” bursts with urgency, under an intricate odd-metered flow with subsequent rhythmic transitions - probing rubato reflections before concluding with a faster theme than when it started. “3:30 AM” alludes to Sanchez’s insomnia, with the trio tossing off a strapping rhythmic drive that reminiscent of electro-punk-rock. Piano counterpoint, angular melodic phrases, and dark cluster chords punctuate the piece, leading to extroverted exchanges between bass and drums.
Sanchez keeps things moving with the expansions and contractions of “The Love Unable to Give”, an 11/8 piece, and finds solace in the smooth logic of “Black Cyclone”, infused with jazz tradition-inflected ideas and spinning with contrapuntal liquidity, infectious vocabulary, and Tordini’s compelling bass statement. “29B” ends the solid set with the same verve that started it.
Perpetual Void is built with imaginative new pulses, polyrhythmic allure, and enveloping harmonic waves that make an impact on the listener. You’ll find a lot to connect with.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - I Don’t Want to Live the Wrong Life and Then Die ► 02 - 3:30 AM ► 09 - Black Cyclone