Matteo Bortone - No Lands '2020

Tracks list

Fourth album as leader for double bass player and composer Matteo Bortone,
‘No Land’s’ will be out two years after
‘ClarOscuro’ (CAM Jazz), five years after ‘Time
Images’ (Auand Records) – which led Bortone to be awarded Best
Italian Rising Star at Top Jazz 2015 – and seven years after his debut
album, ‘Travelers’. The new band is an evolution of the
‘Travelers’ lineup: the French-Italian quartet active since 2008,
who worked with Bortone on his first two albums, is now a quintet/sextet.

‘No Land’s’ collective research process is built around
contemporary jazz fueled by rock/pop sounds, psychedelic moods, echoes of drone
music and electronics. The addition of the Rhodes piano significantly expands
the sound range – to make the most out of it, Bortone reinvents himself
as composer and player, developing a new approach to writing that also involves
electronics, glockenspiel, and manipulated background voices – all of
which allows him to create sounds he never explored before in his career as a
leader.

Contrast seems to be key in Bortone’s world – electronic vs.
acoustic; long structures vs. brief episodes; unison vs. polyphony. It’s
an idea he tries to fully examine, in order to understand what lies behind.

The album title ‘No Land’s’ is intentionally unclear,
leaving this mystery to any future listener. On the cover art, a kid plays in a
bare land. Freedom, not-belonging, a land of no one (or anyone?), a mystery
– these elements in ‘No Land’s’ invite the listener
to explore a audiovisual creation that evolves through 9 tracks, and is ideally
summarized in the final ‘Volverse Lugar’ (“Turning into a
place”). 

Antonin-Tri Hoang - alto sax, bass clarinet, clarinet
Julien Pontvianne - tenor sax, clarinet
Francesco Diodati - electric guitar
Yannick Lestra - rhodes, synth, piano
Matteo Bortone - basses, electronics, glockenspiel, vocals
Ariel Tessier - drums

Tracklisting:
01. Matteo Bortone - Delta (4:19)
02. Matteo Bortone - Dougie Jones (5:43)
03. Matteo Bortone - Future/Past (6:56)
04. Matteo Bortone - In Aliore Loco (8:54)
05. Matteo Bortone - Dumps (6:01)
06. Matteo Bortone - Screens (4:11)
07. Matteo Bortone - Shapeshifter (7:19)
08. Matteo Bortone - A Spectral Fairytale (6:51)
09. Matteo Bortone - Ichi Go Ichi E (6:30)
10. Matteo Bortone - Volverse Lugar (3:10)

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