by ywannish
There is no jazz like piano jazz. It has accompanied and played an important role the history of the genre right from the beginning. It brings emotional depth to anything that’s part of, especially in instrumental duos, no matter if it teams up with guitar, with saxophone or with another piano. Radament from Spain is another great example of melodic and harmonic capabilities, this time coming out from when piano meets drums. This very interesting project is represented by the jazz pianist Juanjo Fernández and the drummer Giorgio Fausto Menossi. Full of lovely ideas, contemporary in approach and keeping a high-quality end throughout, Radament makes great use of the duo members’ experience in various other groups and projects, the academic background and their skills to bring quality sound and composition.
Radament is one those albums that charms at first audition. Nevertheless, it reveals itself richer and more intense each time you’re listening to it. It shows an outstanding capacity of incorporating slow passages with rhythmic phases to the point where each song comes as a unique surprise, impossible to anticipate and gratifying to the last bit.
The albums opens the track called ‘Snooze’ that alternates wistfulness with vitality exposing a state of vulnerability of time and space, an invitation to territories ruled by awareness falling into dreamy landscapes. ‘Bebelle’ is an example of how melancholy makes inroads in different emotional states. The crescendo is given by a smart approach of heavy-handed play combined with lighter touches and, this way, drama, anger or desperation never reach peaks and mingle with hope, radiance and serenity. ‘Danza Mecania’ chosen to promote the album and which you can also listen at the end of this review, is a brilliant well-built piece, with piano leading the way in progression with the drumming, bringing together classical and modern to a wonderful effect. A vivid interpretation, an intense composition and a vigorous sound; almost like a metaphor for the battle between good and evil, maybe even more obvious on ‘Rete Mirabile’ where you can almost visualize the motion, forces and energy associated therewith. ‘Los Pájaros Gobiernan La Ciudad Vacía’ is more experimental and closer to free compositions but you immediately recognize the already established distinctive mark of the Radament piano and the drums sound.
The album shows a pattern of alternating heavy parts and calm passages but the real thrill comes from how Radament manages to not make a contrast out of this, but rather to harmonize the romanticism coming out of the cinematic effect with the deep strong signatures. It is amazing how each of the seven tracks is a distinctive song in terms of composition and how they have the same sound signature, like a resonance that lasts.
Radament correlates creative progression with emotional openness, gloominess with grace and wonderful melody with significant themes in a cinematic journey for a taste of life. It may be a debut album technically, but it’s already full-grown.
BAND INFO
MEMBERS
- Juanjo Fernández – Piano and Composition
- Giorgio Fausto Menossi – Drums
MORE INFO
released January 19, 2017
Recorded by Alberto Perez at Sol de Sants Studios
Mixed by Giorgio Fausto Menossi
Mastered by Giuliano Gius Cobelli at TAAK Studio
Photo by Juan Jerez
Radament – Danza Mecánica || Music Video
