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Diaz-Infante / Fernandes / Montoya / Romus: "Reverberations from Spring Past"

  Tobias

To a generation, who grew up on Rock, Jazz is something for later – for when you’re old and take your grandchildren to see that Dixieland band play at the seaside. Alternatively, the jazz-vibe has crept into contemporary dance productions, teaming up with electronic grooves and lush textures to create that relaxed and sophisticated lounge-feeling. In either case, it has definitely lost the sweat, the blood and the tears of those early years and become a synonym for carefree entertainment. “Reverberations from spring past” breaks with this modern-day complacency and puts Jazz decidedly back into the driving seat of a roaring roller-coaster hotrod.

Without a doubt, this is not music for your lazy Sunday morning – “Reverberations” is wild, raw, energetic and headstrong, a revitalising coctail of aural acupuncture and tonal caffeine. Ernesto Diaz-Infante’s steelstring guitar pushes and shoves itself into a trance, like a spaced-out raga-master, Marcos Fernandes’ percussions crash, crack and crush like a giant magnet being dragged through your kitchen, while Robert Montoya’s sizzling and fizzing electronics irritate and irrigate the dried-out fields of your imagination. You press the “play”-button and you’re right in the middle of it, there’s no classical ouverture or slow build-up, everything is right there from the very first second, without a chance to rethink or consider. It’s as if the band is constantly glued to the tip of their seat, immersed in the pain of not being able to stop and the extatic joy of forging forward. If the ship-analogy may be applied, then the three aforementioned players are the sail and the body, shaping the form things are going to take and Rent Romus and his Sax are the rudder, guiding the way. In “Premonition”, his frenzied summersaults lead the band ever upwards towards the sky, in “Blues for Ezra” he lets down the drapes and colours the room all blue and mournful, while the melodic simplicity of “An Offering of Interconnectedness” lifts itself into this loop-mode, which you wish might go on forever. All of these band-erruptions are bathed in phonographic waves, field recordings and noises of the city and of unknown origin, which lend additional depth and texture to the tracks. Which brings an almost ethereal and unreal sensation to the record – one of the most beautiful moments happens when frantic “Premonition” abruptly stops and flows into the sounds of cars, passers-by and people talking. Suddenly, it all makes sense.

The cover suggests a decent dose of flowerpower and the good spirit of the 60s and 70s indeed seems to have been present during these recordings – this makes for a wonderful summer record. Yet, “Reverberations” needs no allusions to the past, nor comparisons with the “great”. It is the best example that even the most fortified cliches will crumble, when faced with a brutally executed simple and good idea – Jazz is here and now and it’s for you!

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: Pax Recordings
Homepage: Accretions Records
Homepage: Trummerflora Collective