Stefano Battaglia Trio
Songways
ECM ****
Still one of the least known ECM pianists although that began to change with The River of Anyder, Milan-born Battaglia is joined here once again by Sassari-born double bassist Salvatore Maiore, and drummer Roberto Dani, the youngest member of the trio who has performed with Norma Winstone among others. Battaglia on this his fifth album as a leader for the label manages to merge a deep contemplative playing style with a sparkling joyous side to his playing, say on a track such as ‘Babel Hymn’ where to place Battaglia it’s like the coming together of Keith Jarrett and Danilo Pérez’s combined playing styles. Recorded last April it’s an album of songs, chants, and dances with Battaglia attempting to bridge what he calls “archaic modal pre-tonal chant and dances, pure tonal songs and hymns and abstract texture.” I’m not quite sure hearing this album where these technical distinctions lie as it’s a record that does not hesitate to exhibit an emotional response throughout, again like Jarrett particularly on the more chant-like tunes. The most significant of his compositions (and this is a significant album, more profound than its predecessor) is the long ‘Euphonia Elegy’ full of big dramatic statements that do not seem at all overblown. With references in song titles to Homer, Jonathan Swift, Italo Calvino (the title track), Charles Fourier, Adalbert Stifter, Edgar Allan Poe, the surrealism of Renée Daumal, and Alfred Kubin, not forgetting the bible, that’s quite an extensive reading list to be going on with as inspirations of a suitably engrossing record. The trio has reached a tipping point in terms of group empathy, and on a more experimental track such as the opening of ‘Perla’ both Maiore and Dani show uncanny poise. SG
Just released