RED trio new CD at Clean Feed
Finally and after a long wait RED trio’s debut CD at Clean Feed is out!
At July 2008 we where lucky to be able to do a three day residency at Moagem, Fundão. We played and recorded for hours and hours and the result was impressive: the trio got a new sound and we lots of recording sessions with extremely interesting material. At the end of the residency we had a concert.
Choosing the final tracks was a difficult task due to long hours of recordings we had. To fit all the music we enjoyed on 50 to 55 minutes was another difficult task because we had to eliminate several pieces we all enjoyed. After a long and democratic process we choose the following line up:
- “Core”. Personally I think this is the best track. We were extremely concentrated and focused on a small set of ideas that we used and explored till the end. Lots of tension, dynamics and nervous music.
- “Flat”: This one starts with a beautiful doublebass solo from Hernâni.
- “Core, Flat”. The idea was to play something quiet with a ballad mood.
- “Quick Sand”. All of us are trying to blend every instrument timbre with each other using lots of extended techniques. The dynamics during this track are extreme: from almost silence to pure noise.
- “Time Wise”. On this one I decided to prepare the piano on a “John Cage” fashion using bolts, rubber, paper, etc. It is something I usually don’t do because once you have your piano prepared it’s very difficult to quickly return to a plain piano sound, especially on a concert. So normally I do prefer to modify the piano sound by placing stuff on the piano strings (instead of between the string) that I can easily place and remove while playing. But as we were recording and we had time we decided to try it. At the end Gabriel has a great solo.
- “Burning Light”. A noise and short piece.
We mixed and mastered the album with Carlos Santos. It was a very complex and painstaking process because of several problems that happened during the recording: the piano microphones were placed to near from the piano sound board, so whenever I played louder there some minor but very annoying high pitch distortion problems with the mix. The sound captured by the doublebass microphone also was problematic. Anyway, only someone so patient as Carlos would be able to solve all of those problems.
The CD design is from Travassos. The CD features linear notes from Pandelis Karayorgis.
2009 was not a very good year for RED trio because we had very few concerts although all of us had lots project we were working on. So we decided to postpone the CD release to 2010.
Now that the CD is out we are all very proud and happy with the result. The first reactions and critics are very positive and we hope this is a starting point for something bigger for the trio.
You can buy the CD from Clean Feed, iTunes Store, Amazon or from me.