Polish-born but Amsterdam-based for a decade, pianist Marta Warelis created the Omawi trio with Dutch players drummer Onno Govaert and bassist Wilbert de Joode so that each musician's part interlocks with the others as firmly as pieces in a completed jigsaw puzzle.
Cactus Truck's Govaert and De Joode, whose numerous sessions includes ones with Ab Baars, with whom Warelis has also worked, realize this instance of group composition by intuiting each other's moves and responding or auguring developments.
Isolated strokes, key stops, soundboard echoes and inside piano string agitation usually characterize Warelis' improvising. Backed by drum rattles and bass thumps, she can unleash smashing and splintering full keyboard expositions (as on "Till A Becomes The") or suddenly speedily knit together an expressive melodic interlude, as she does frequently throughout.
Govaert's intermittent and reflective paradiddles, press rolls and cymbal clanks accent and decorate the tunes as succinctly as the pianist's soundboard shakes, string buzzing and single note emphasis. As for de Joode, his decades of experience means he can extract comprehensive connection from even a single strained arco squeak (as on "Kindled By Solitude") or use woody, basement pizzicato stops to create answering strokes to put Warelis' jagged high-pitched dynamics and Govaert's vigorous stick beats into an overlapping tonal framework.
Waive is Omawi's third album and marks the band members' steady acceleration in skill and power. Hopefully the three will continue to take time from their many other projects to continue and intensify this productive and rewarding collaboration.
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