MUT TRIO

“A long-standing Barcelona trio with a unique and idiosyncratic style and a repertoire that combines semi-composed themes with quirky improvisation, that somehow manages to unite elements of free jazz with more conventional stylings.” Dave Foxall, Jazz Journal (UK)

On the Barcelona scene (and beyond) the leaderless MUT Trio has a unique and idiosyncratic voice. It’s a voice that combines sparse structures and eloquent improvisation. A voice in which space and silence are equal partners alongside the instruments. It’s a voice that continues to evolve on this, their forth recording.

The MUT sound still features Miguel Fernández’s agile tone and minimal, fragmented phrasing, Albert Juan’s infinite textures and melodic refraction, and the cymbal-infused percussive landscapes of Oriol Roca… but with the addition of occasional live collaborator Masa Kamaguchi on bass, the sonic palette has broadened a little. Yet in bringing this deeper timbre, Kamaguchi is at home with the ‘less is more’ MUT philosophy and adds a variety of string-rattling subtleties without the slightest injury to MUT’s trademark mesmerising flow and cliché-free clarity.

MUT Trio is about melody. Often partial, splintered even; tuneful shards are repeated, turned over, given fresh response, pushed through the looking glass, creating unpredictable journeys for the listener. From the precision and pace, to the hint of the souk, or the folk-ish roots of their music… some possibilities only become apparent (or possible) once in motion, and MUT are in constant motion.

It’s been said before – notably by Ornette Coleman – that you cannot intellectualise music without diminishing it in some way, what really matters is the emotional response. MUT Trio’s music is primarily an emotional endeavour: curiosity, melancholy, joy (from quiet to fierce), liberty, wonder, and warmth, this is music alive with feeling.

MIGUEL FERNÁNDEZ: tenor and soprano saxophone
ALBERT JUAN: electric guitar
ORIOL ROCA: drums

MASA KAMAGUCHI: double bass (on last album)

“It’s the creative tension between ad libitum abstraction and an invigorating range of pithy assertion which—for all the aforementioned historical precedent—gives this striking session an ever-stronger impact each time it’s played.” Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal (UK)

“MUT Trio’s 2395 album is a raspberry jam, dark but sweet. It has a facile, mild and smooth surrealism; music that seems to be conceived more with extramusical ideas than with jazz templates. And, nevertheless, what we hear is jazz; a jazz in its most contemporary sense.” Germán Lázaro, Cuadernosdejazz (Spain)

ALBUMS