I Treni Inerti - Ura

Creative Sources (CS 006)

Oh no, you’re saying, not another trumpet/trumpet/accordion improvising trio! Well, yes, and the results are quite positive. Not unexpectedly, Matt Davis and Ruth Barberan (trumpets) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (accordion) don’t often produce sounds normally associated with their respective instruments but they do fashion a knotty, consistently absorbing soundscape full of clattering keys, breath tones, buzzes and clicks and devote enough attention to contrasting slivers of noise to make this a very rewarding outing. In fact, it’s regrettable to even feel obliged to announce this or that relatively unique instrumental grouping as it becomes increasingly beside the point as this area of music progresses. Yes, you’ll hear certain sounds, combinations of timbres, potential attacks that are new and or innovative, but with the plethora of musicians, wielding every conceivable instrument or variation thereof, does it really matter? It still comes back to the concept and/or inherent musicality of the persons involved and that’s where, happily, the joy and excitement is to be found herein. Barberan (I believe from Barcelona) and Monteiro from Portugal are fine examples of the recent upsurge in activity from that neck of the woods and each display finely attuned and wide-ranging sensitivity, the latter feeling free to occasionally introduce recognizably accordion-esque notes when they serve a purpose but also proving proficient in the art of strangled wheezes and the percussive capabilities of his squeezebox. It’s finally about creating a convincing aural space, something that sounds entirely natural and unforced, as though the listener had entered a room where such noises and notes were an organic outgrowth of the environment. I Treni Inerti (“Motionless Trains”, if I’m freely translating from the Italian properly) accomplish this with grace and imagination.