Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Michele Rabbia/Gianluca Petrella/Eivind Aarset: Lost River

Michele Rabbia/Gianluca Petrella/Eivind Aarset: Lost River

By Mark Sullivan
July 7, 2019
View read count

Michele Rabbia/Gianluca Petrella/Eivind Aarset: Lost River

The ECM catalog includes a broad range of musical genres: the only things they have in common are a forward outlook and excellent musicianship. But there are some that are truly beyond category, and this largely improvised album is one of them. Italian percussionist

Michele Rabbia

percussion

" data-original-title="" title="">Michele Rabbia, Italian trombonist

Gianluca Petrella

trombone
b.1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Gianluca Petrella and Norwegian guitarist

Eivind Aarset

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Eivind Aarset came together at producer

Manfred Eicher

" data-original-title="" title="">Manfred Eichers suggestion. Rabbia and Aarset have played many duo concerts, and Rabbia has also worked with Petrella in other contexts, but this recording is their premier as a trio. In addition to their open-minded approach to improvisation, all three share an interest in expanding their sonic possibilities with electronics.

The titles are all concerned with water. "Nimbus" (a rain cloud) opens the set with atmospheric percussion, the trombone playing a plaintive melody (Petrella often plays a lead role here similar to trumpeters

Arve Henriksen

trumpet
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Arve Henriksen and

Nils Petter Molvaer

trumpet
b.1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Nils Petter Molvaer on earlier ECM recordings). Rabbia adds a light, steady rhythmic pulse, while Aarset builds an abstract background soundscape. "Flood" is all atmosphere, with guitar soundscapes taking the lead for most of the piece, with a swelling climax that dies out slowly. "What Floats Beneath" is credited to Aarset alone, and features the first traditional guitar sounds: gentle strummed chords, over a background that includes sound effects imitating water.

The title tune is an atmospheric three-way conversation between light percussion, swelling guitar, and trombone (sometimes with echo, briefly in conversation with itself). "Night Sea Journey" features trombone with a wah-wah mute, and a long closing electronic soundscape. "Fluvius" (Latin for river or stream) is credited to Rabbia, and is the longest track at over six minutes. Not at all the percussion-oriented song one might expect, it includes a gentle repeated trombone melody, swelling electronics—and no obvious percussion sounds. The program concludes with two brief tracks: "Flotsam" (wreckage of a ship or its cargo floating or washed up by the sea), an atmospheric drum/guitar duet, and "Wadi" (an Arabic term for a dry riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs), an even more atmospheric closer.

Recent improvisational sessions involving these players include

Tigran Hamasyan

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Tigran Hamasyan/Arve Henriksen/Eivind Aarset/

Jan Bang

live sampling
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Jan Bang: Atmosph��res (ECM, 2016) and

Giovanni Guidi

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Giovanni Guidi/Gianluca Petrella/

Louis Sclavis

woodwinds
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Louis Sclavis/

Gerald Cleaver

drums
b.1963

" data-original-title="" title="">Gerald Cleaver: Ida Lupino (ECM, 2016). But both of these have a particular genre emphasis: Armenian music, especially the composer Komitas, colors Atmosph��res; modern jazz informs the sound of Ida Lupino. Here there is no stylistic agenda, to enchanting result.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Nimbus; Flood; What Floats Beneath; Lost River; Styx; Night Sea Journey; Fluvius; What The Water Brings; Flotsam; Wadi.

Personnel

Michele Rabbia

percussion

Michele Rabbia: drums, electronics; Gianluca Petrella: trombone, sounds; Eivind Aarset: guitar, electronics.

Album information

Title: Lost River | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: ECM Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Stringent and Sempiternal
< Previous

Yellow Live
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.