Import CD – AU3007 – Symbiont – Luca Dell’Anna

Notes

Italian pianist Luca Dell’Anna’s second album “Symbiont” is out on May 25th on Auand Records’ Piano Series, following his critically acclaimed debut work “Mana” (2014) that featured Ivo Barbieri e Israel Varela. Dell’Anna is still leading in a trio, this time featuring Danilo Gallo, a versatile, genre-crossing double bass player who founded El Gallo Rojo collective, and Michele Salgarello, one of the most accomplished Italian jazz drummers. “Symbiont” is meant to symbolize the relationship between the one and the multiplicity, both as a collective, made up of symbiotic individuals, and as a celebration of the beauty of individual complexity (which, in turn, is the result of chaotic as well as symbiotic layers). The album includes 10 tracks Dell’Anna has specifically composed for his two band members, focusing on their inner nature and expressive charisma. Gallo and Salgarello share a longtime experience and a solid, many-sided background, easily handling written structures and free improvisations. «The “Symbiont” challenge – Luca Dell’Anna says – was all about finding a common ground this structured writing and my band members’ strong, independent personality could coexist in. Just like a playground, a place everyone can set his style free without losing sight of symbiotic interdependence of each part.» Each composition plays on counterpoint dichotomy between melody and bass, and rhythmic-harmonic juxtaposition of sections, starting with the title-track, with two cyclically different rhythms based on a similar beat and, permeating each other. A light balance between free structures and a firm “call” system reigns, thus getting structures back to the common grid, as in “Exokernel” and “The Turk”. All this results in a fluid, choral conglomerate – an often strict, excited writing free-flowing through a strong common vision, thus keeping interplay free as well.