Reviews

Album Review: Natura Morta
Natura Morta
Prom Night Records
Sean Ali- Bass
Franz Loriot- Viola
Carlo Costa- Drums
Recorded and Mixed by Nathiel Morgan at Buckminster Palace
Mastered by Jim Clouse 

Enter the aural space of Natura Morta and be overtaken by delicately crafted realms of disturbing sonic experience. The first track on this debut release sounds like a bad psychedelic episode experienced in the intimate quarters of a steam shower. 
"Natura Morta," translated from Italian, means "still life," though the literal translation is “dead nature.” The music on this album evokes both of these concepts. It is soft and slow paced, conjuring stillness. The pieces are composed of distorted and abrasive sounds that reflect the morbidity the band’s name implies. 
Soothing, industrial soundscapes are created by the musicians’ use of drones, bells, and gently bowed strings. Often noises crescendo into destruction before returning to a state of post-apocalyptic calm.
It is impossible to parcel out the sounds each musician is making in these live recordings. Franz Loriot’s viola flitters and squeals into the sonic territory inhabited by Sean Ali’s howling bass. Bells ring, surfaces grumble -- occasionally a low thud clues us in: we are hearing Carlo Costa’s approach to playing the drums. 
In Natura Morta, old world meets decaying Midwest. Carlo, Frantz and Sean, hailing from Rome, Paris, and Dayton, Ohio respectively, have come together to create an otherworldly album that is mysterious, dark and intriguing. 
Listen/Buy/Learn:





Sons of Daughters- Beyond Animals
released 09 March 2012Patrick Breiner - tenor saxophone, clarinet, voice Aaron Darrell - bass, voice
Devin Drobka - drums

Recorded  at Tedesco Studios in Paramus, NJ.
Mixed by Ben Greenberg in Brooklyn, NY.
Mastered by Matt Scheiner in Redding, CT. 


Dancing on the borders between free jazz, chamber music, and vocalized song is something few bands have attempted to do. Sons of Daughters, in their fourth release on Sulde Records, tread these juxtaposed territories with a confidence that molds them into a singular and refreshing sound.

Places, the second track on the album, begins with bassist Aaron Darrell’s voice singing an almost impossible melody; soaring upwards through dissonance only to twist and land in lilting cadences. In their jazzier moments, the band sounds a bit like Mark Helias’ Open Loose, a great tenor trio of a previous generation. Constantly meandering from well established cohesion into loose interaction and back again, often many times in a single song.

On Beyond Animals, Sons of Daughters display their mastery of the art of compositional improvisation. Even in his furiously cascading lines, reeds player Patrick Breiner conveys the harmonic material of the songs, perpetually repurposing melodies that fly over Devin Drobka’s ever shifting backdrop of drums. Listening to Sons of Daughters, it is clear that they are playing tunes, but they convey them with the freedom and comfort that comes only from the telepathic connection that all great bands develop.

This musical connection is something SoDs, as true road warriors, have earned. If you are on the east coast or in the midwest this June I recommend finding them, in a jazz club, gallery, or busted out basement near you.


listen/buy/learn:
http://sonsofdaughters.tumblr.com/