Mirio Cosottini (trumpet), Andrea Melani (drums), Tonino Miano (piano), Alessio Pisani (bassoon, contrabassoon).
GriMedia 004/Impressus 004, 2009 (CD) Recording and mastering: Walter Neri.
Recorded in Montevarchi (Italy) , July 2009.
Tracklist: 1. Vocale 2. Vento Salato 3. Radici 4. Cardinal 5. Jump-U-Funk 6. Ehe Download 7. Mazes Counterpoint 8. Bianca 9. Exmod 1
Cardinal is a project, like many of those relying on improvisation, that was accomplished in a three-day studio meeting. The participating individuals had previously collaborated on separate projects – (Cosottini-Miano had produced “The Curvature of Pace”, Impressus-GRIM 2007, and Cosottini-Melani-Pisani where part of the EAQuartet Electroacoustic Quartet, GRIM 2007) – but never before in this fashion. The title, in reference to the four cardinal points, was chosen to reflect a multidirectional sound, and thus the choice of a map as the cover for the album. Moreover, most compositions make use of graphic scores, some of them needing a “open” reading approach. One of them is, for instance, a labyrinth, therefore enhancing the game-like character of the experience and disengaging the performer in terms of “wanting” to go in a specific direction. Another has its theme played in retrograde at the closing, suggesting that moving forward from the point of origin can lead toward it, and so on.
Despite the diversity typical of each individual originator (composer/improviser) Cardinal seems to breathe the same air throughout, as if its four points were inherently aware of the fact that the fabric of the soundscape was constantly shifting, and were adjusting to it as to preserve an overall sense of balance. — Impressus Records
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This download consists of one 52.57MB zip file containing the complete track list in 192kbps MP3 format along with album art in high resolution JPG format.
Sku: IR002
I was quite enthusiastic recently about EAsilence, a collaboration between Mirio Cosottini on trumpet and Alessio Pisani on bassoon and contrabassoon. And now, some months later, their new project is already out, and again with staggering results. The duo has become a quartet, with Andrea Milani on drums and Tonino Miano on piano. The approach is different, yet keeps the same sensitivity and inventiveness.The presence of piano and drums give the music a clearly more jazzy feeling, but not always. The percussion and the piano sometimes add sparse notes to complete eery soundscapes, closer to new music.
The band’s name comes from the four “cardinal points”, (and not the senior ecclesiastical official of the catholic church). It was chosen to reflect a multi-directional sound, a kind of geography in which the way has to be found, in which no roads are available, it’s the world before borders and lines, yet real nonetheless. The musicians converge, rotate around a central point, then diverge and go back their own way.
The music is as accessible as it is adventurous, cerebral and emotional, programmed and spontaneous, it’s jazz and classical, recognizable and never heard, grave and light-footed, but with an aesthetic beauty and sensitivity that can only be admired. So is the musicianship: listen to the quality of the sounds, the ideas, the interaction but also the restraint they show. So is the artistry in the variations of the compositions, from the deeply sad “Bianca” to the fun “Jump-U-Funk” over the eery “Exmod 1″, yet strangely enough not straying from the overall vision: it all fits nicely. Exceptional! — Stef Gijssels, Free Jazz, October 2009.
Directives emanate from a fixed point. East exists only in relation to West. Can you North from the North Pole? Directions radiate, growing forever further apart from a fixed point, a center without edges. Cartographers are illusionists. They map a terrain in order to explain, to chart what cannot be seen. The world is flat and continues on the following page. Cardinal is a quartet. They are not points on a line. They are a game of four square. North, South, East and West all facing center. They do not radiate; they converge unexpectedly inward. Cardinal is the Cosottini’s trumpet and Melani’s percussion, the piano of Miano, the Pisani bassoon, divergent, in separate corners and approaching each other. They reference unusual maps, graphic scores that suggest ways they might find one another. Maps can be used to find a way to a destination; they can also be used to find a way away. A direct route is the shortest distance. A direct result has no intervening factors. The four directors of Cardinal move with a marked determinism, toward and ever-shifting middle. — Kurt Gottschalk