Ivo Sans (drums)
Marcel·li Bayer (clarinet, tenor sax)
Johannes Nästesjö (bass)
Marco Mezquida (piano)
First live music of the year and where else but Robadors 23? It began with delicacy: a whisper of clarinet, a hand inside the piano, gentle arco bass, sparse punctuation from la bateria… in fact, it was so delicate, the chattering couple behind me didn’t realise (or perhaps didn’t care) that the musicians had begun. They were shushed by several (quietly) outraged audience members – the attendance at these sessions is small but serious about the music.
Partly thanks to the varying line up of performers, each week at R23 results in a unique work of art – fleeting yet fixed in the moment, a product of each musician’s lifelong experience and the ephemeral influences of the instant. And despite there being plenty of armageddon-like cacophony, it’s all underpinned by a ‘less is more’ philosophy which says, why use 3 notes when 2 will do? Especially if they form a frenetic and elegiac oscillation that keeps us swirling over jagged and pointillistic piano, ever-so-slightly dissonant bass and a yearning scraping percussion.
As ever, another small dose of satori on a Thursday evening. Perhaps all the more impressive given that Agustí Fernández was observing. As Marcel·li Bayer afterwards said of performing in front of his ex-professor, it’s like playing football while Gary Lineker watches… 😛