Through a
series of critically acclaimed releases over the past ten years, Lisbon,
Portugal native, singer and composer Sara Serpa has continually defied the
limitations of genre, implementing a singular instrumental approach to her
vocal style. Her new album, Close Up, presents the compelling configuration of
voice, saxophone and cello, exploring Serpa's own compositions. Accompanied by
a stellar new trio, Serpa finds her partners in two innovative improvisers with
distinct musical personalities: saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, one of the most
significant voices in contemporary jazz and improvised music, and Downtown
veteran cellist Erik Friedlander.
"The
configuration of voice, saxophone and cello exposes each instrument with a
precise vulnerability" says Serpa. "From within this exposure, we
look for cohesion and collective sound. I write the material, but the music
takes shape in the process of our rehearsals and the time we spend together,
through discussion and collective experimentation."
The result
is an album that resembles a high resolution photograph, a mesmerizing play on
the idea of close-ups: the compositions, the musicians and their roles within
the trio, and the recording process.
"The
compositions also reveal close-ups of different episodes in my life,"
Serpa explains. Take the example of the poignant song "Woman," using
the French philosopher Luce Irigaray's text. "It exposes the invisibility
of motherhood. Because that experience is recent to me, the text resonated with
my thoughts and feelings," Serpa offers. "Writing this song was part
of a healing process, as I dealt with the realizations of the lack of support
women artists receive as mothers, and of the paradoxical loneliness one can
feel in one of life's most beautiful events."
All the
compositions present striking atmospheres, glimmering with melodic and
dissonant sounds, unified and transformed by the trio. Serpa, Laubrock and
Friedlander play with their roles, alternating in creating backgrounds, to
holding down bass lines, or to playing extremely long tones that become
textures. "To find our place without a harmonic instrument was an
interesting challenge and I enjoyed learning how to be independent, to be
featured as soloist, or to act in ensemble, whatever each song was calling
for." Laubrock and Friedlander are valuable partners in these roles;
shifting with their unpredictable phrasing, extreme versatility, and attentive
ears.
Iranian film
director Kiarostami's film Close Up is cited as an influence in the album's
liner notes. "The movie (a masterpiece itself) plays with the idea of
actors who are in fact not actors but become actors of a fictitious film,
providing a common thread between the film and the music I was creating at the
same time I was watching it."
The quality
of being still, of observing as nature unfolds, comes across in the song
"Storm Coming," highlighted by Ingrid Laubrock's masterful solo
improvisation. In the dark and ambient section, each instrument blends into the
other, rendering the piece an impressionistic sonic experience, an image of
dark clouds slowly gathering before a storm.
Serpa, whose
natural instinct is to sing wordlessly -"When I lack words, I sing sounds,
and emotions are conveyed through those sounds" - uses literature as
inspiration in several of this album's pieces: Luce Irigaray for
"Woman," and Virginia Woolf in "The Future." Portuguese
poet Ruy Bello's "Pássaros," Birds, is the backbone for an eccentric
and energetic piece. "The poem is about how birds are tree's fruits, and
how birds make the trees sing. Imagining the trees singing is an inspiring
image," the singer explains.
"Object,"
"Quiet Riot," and "Sol Enganador," exploratory and complex
in their compositional nature, are all instrumental pieces, in which the voice
functions as an equal to the cello and the saxophone.
Close Up
reveals Serpa's voice as never before - her sound is full, consistent, and
expressive. "Cantar Ao Fim," at the end of the album's journey,
starts with a vocal improvisation that makes one wonder whether Serpa is
singing right next to your ear, intimate and quotidian. "This song came
out of an improvisation I recorded on my phone when I was out in the mountains,
at night. That moment stayed with me, looking at the mountains and singing
without thinking or judging what was coming out. There is something very
powerful in singing alone in the nature."
Lisbon,
Portugal native, Sara Serpa is a singer, composer, improviser who implements a
unique instrumental approach to her vocal style. Recognized for her distinctive
wordless singing, Serpa has been immersed in the field of jazz, improvised and
experimental music since first arriving in New York in 2008. Described by
JazzTimes magazine as "a master of wordless landscapes" and by the
New York Times as "a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan
outlook," Serpa started her recording and performing career with jazz
luminaries such as Grammy-nominated pianist Danilo Perez, and Guggenheim and
MacArthur Fellow pianist Ran Blake. Her ethereal music draws from a broad
variety of inspirations including literature, film, visual arts as well as
history and nature. As a leader, she has produced and released seven albums;
the latest being "All The Dreams" in collaboration with guitarist
André Matos. Serpa has collaborated with an extensive array musicians including
John Zorn, Mycale Vocal 4tet, Guillermo Klein, Mark Turner, Zeena Parkins,
Andreia Pinto-Correia, Derek Bermel, Aya Nishina, Tyshawn Sorey, Nicole
Mitchell, among many others.
CLOSE UP
1. Object
2. Pássaros
3. Sol
Enganador
4. The
Future
5. Listening
6. Storm
Coming
7. Woman
8. Quiet Riot
9. Cantar Ao
Fim
Sara Serpa -
voice | composition Ingrid Laubrock - tenor | soprano saxophone Erik
Friedlander - cello
Recorded live by Pete Rende, June 15, 2017, at Pete's House, Brooklyn, New York
Recorded live by Pete Rende, June 15, 2017, at Pete's House, Brooklyn, New York
Mixed by
Pete Rende | Mastered by Luís Delgado Produced by Sara Serpa | All music by
Sara Serpa
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