By Paul Acquaro

If drummer and legend Rakalam Bob Moses calls you out on social media as one of many “nice, terribly artistic, visionary drummer/percussionists from all around the globe,” it is smart to heed the decision. See it because the universe calling. In any case, Moses did play with Pat Metheny, Paul Bley, Steve Swallow, Gary Burton and Dave Liebman, amongst many others and his percussion work is a defining factor on seminal albums of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Luckily, Lisbon based mostly, listed, drummer Pedro Melo Alves, who made the listing, heard the message, obtained in contact, and in addition launched Memphis based mostly Moses to a different distinctive percussionist from Barcelona based mostly, Vasco Trilla, and the connection was made, ultimately leaping from cyber area to the actual world.

First, Trilla and Moses collaborated nearly throughout the pandemic, sending information of their taking part in to one another and creating the discharge Singing Icons (Astral Spirits, 2023). Then, assembly up in 2022, the three percussionists performed a collection of dates in Portugal, adopted by a visit into the studio. Sonic Alchemy Suprema, the results of this spirited assembly, finds the percussionists immersed in a whole sound-world, drawing typically on the saxophone taking part in of João Pedro Brandão, José Soares and Julius Gabriel however principally drawing from their very own huge swimming pools of tones and textures.

The album begins off with the observe entitled “Opening,” by which a reserved rumble of tom-toms and hand-drums are sliced by means of by metallic scrapping from cymbals. This leads seamlessly into “One with Infinite House,” the place we hear the saxophones taking part in layered legato harmonies and quick melodic declarations. Monitor 3, “Alma Ra Kalam,” reveals a unique facet of the trio, the place hand drums present a extra right down to earth groove after the religious hovering of the earlier observe. The observe builds slowly, a taught vitality generated between the hand drums and the drum equipment that is available in later to solidify the heartbeat.

Over the course of the album’s beneficiant fifteen tracks, there are duo and trio encounters, some that swing and others that plumb the sonic depths. Infrequently, often at the beginning of a observe, chances are you’ll even hear Moses exclaim one thing or sing the drum line he is about to play. Closing observe, “Hovering Leaf,” is one which once more incorporates the horns. This time, the hand drum is underscored with a jittery snare drum and the saxophones and flute flutter like leaves in wind, maybe even propelled by the woosh of bass drum.

If pressed to say one optimistic factor about social media, I’d provide up Sonic Alchemy Suprema. The album is the lasting proof of a musical encounter born from a seemingly innocuous publish positioned in our on-line world, resulting in a recording that captures spirit and communication on a deep musical stage.