Duot Feat. Zarm Ensemble
Duot With Strings
POLAND FUNDACJA SŁUCHAJ! FSR 15/2023 CD (2023)
Spanish contemporary jazz matches wits with string music on these 2021 recordings made in Caldas da Rainha, Portgual. In the Spanish corner (Catalan, to be precise) Duot are Albert Cirera on saxophones and Ramón Prats on drums, attempting to set the world ablaze with their bold take on free jazz forms, emboldened ever sine they stepped in to replace Paal Nilssen-Love for a prestige gig at the Miro Foundation in Barcelona. Bringing non-specific noise into the free jazz mix is their general plan, as well as looking for unlikely collaborations where the lemons and gigantic insects may freely roam; we heard one such on the 2017 release Food, where they gave Andy Moor a pretty severe schooling that unwound a few coils from his strings.
That spirit of adventure might be what led our plucky buccaneers to break open a cask or two with Zarm Ensemble, four string players led by the colourful blade, Carlos Zingaro – a violinist with so much personality that his surname resembles a brand of fizzy cola and who has recently taken to adding quote marks to that surname. This excellent group has been operative since around 2018 and the other players are David Magalhães Alves (Violin), Ulrich Mitzlaff (Cello) and Alvaro Rosso (Double bass). My early thought was that this sparky record represented some sort of cross-breed hybrido attempt at blending wild free jazz abstractions with cooler classical motifs, but nothing of the sort; I forgot Zingaro is a veteran free improviser, active since the late 1980s or early 1990s, and has a pedigree of collabs with important players around the world, besides gracing some major label imprints with his name. Not long ago we heard his spiky playing with João Camões on Chant, and with Daunik Lazro on Periferia from Fou Records.
I mention all this since it’s the violin work which for me, dominates a lot of this exciting record; well, that and the non-stop drumming…maybe some of the violin action is down to David Alves as well, but between him and Zingaro they are walking away with the prize on this session, at times tending to cast Cirera slightly downstage or East of Eden – although when his lively pronouncements appear, they burst forth and bathe his corner of the stage in a purple hue. Whichever way you slice your fish-vegetables, the fast-moving spider-skitters of this wiry, determined music gets under your eyelids with the skill of an invasive micro-chip, and soon resets your vision on a more wide-vista schemata. Zarm Ensemble act as though they are “above” music in some way; at least their press office, working overtime in the school of David Emile Durkheim, make claims for “subtleties of false emptiness” and “constant vibrations in … reflected silences” in this acoustic string music, proposing a world where the wood of the instrument is on an equal footing with the strings.
For fans of Leroy Jenkins / Revolutionary Ensemble LPs from the 1970s, for sure; it’s not just the highly animated dancing of the violin, but a fundamental belief in the power of music as an agency for political change. The detailed, hyper-active music is bolstered by some jolly titles, such as ‘Crunchy Trails’ and ‘Roaring Jellyfish’, making for a strong release. Only the dull cover, with ugly computer fonts, disappoints. From 23rd November 2023.