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Trilla, Vasco

The Bell Slept Long In The Tower

Trilla, Vasco: The Bell Slept Long In The Tower (thanatosis produktion)

The seventh solo percussion album from Barcelona-based Vasco Trilla, here investigating the symbolic and historical use of bells in different regions and cultures around the world through ten unconventional observations of vibration, resonance, and rich tones performed on timpani, flat tuned bells, transducer speakers, snare drum and assorted percussions.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Vasco Trilla-percussion


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UPC: 8320470268803

Label: thanatosis produktion
Catalog ID: THT34
Squidco Product Code: 35068

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: Sweden
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at V.T. Headquarters, in Barcelona, Spain, on August 22nd, 2023, by Pablo Miranda.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"I remember reading somewhere a quote by Jim O'Rourke where he describes Loren Connors as a "painter who uses a guitar" and Werner Herzog as "poet who uses a camera". In my mind I always see Vasco Trilla as a natural born filmmaker that, somehow, ended up playing percussion. Vasco shares with my favorite film directors an absolute trust towards his raw materials and the most delicate sensibility to the subtleties of its own specific characteristics. Like a director immersed in a particular landscape or focusing his whole attention towards the unique bodies and corporal expression of his actors, Vasco shows an absolute surrender to his different sound objects. His "ears gaze" obsessively focused on the details of his tools, the possible combinations, the best scenario for each bell ring, for each subtle bow stroke.

I had the privilege of working with him in a zillion different situations, and his ability to juxtapose and combine the different tone colors never ceases to amaze me. In a completely "Buñuel style", his sounds interact and develop in a totally unexpected (but mesmerizing) inner logic. How do they come up with such magic combinations?

I like to think that the answer to that question is faith.

Total faith and devotion in the possibilities of his sound objects.

Vasco strikes his resonant bells and sharp cymbals with the same blind faith as Buñuel shoots the snails coming up the girl's thighs. With a total confidence that, surrendering to their nature, the magic will just be revealed.

The Bell Slept Long in its Tower is built around 10 scenes, each one focused on delicate percussion combinations. Like in late era Tarr, the record is constructed from long, almost static shots, very sparse in its development and narrative. The small cast of objects wander through the desolate space created by Trilla's resonant drones, making each new apparition a shaking event. The undulating tones of the zither, the almost-electronic flat bell tones, the shrieking overtones of the timpani membrane, the unexpected mechanical noises ... each body shaping a mysterious ritual dance over the solemn landscape.

This is music from an artist in total control of his tools and language, with no need or urge to show or prove anything. I feel that Vasco is purging his style in this record, destroying the spurious mannerisms and cliches from his discourse. Vasco Trilla at his peak."-Notes by Alex Reviriego


Artist Biographies

"Born in Barcelona, Vasco Trilla started playing drums at the age of nineteen. His first influences were progressive rock and metal, but gradually he developed an interest in a variety of different genres such as jazz, Indian music, African music, klezmer, free improvisation, etc.

Since then he has collaborated, toured and recorded with many different bands and projects such as Boi Akih (an ethno-jazz band from the Netherlands), Planeta Imaginario (progressive jazz-rock) October Equus (avant-rock), The Oddvisers (pop-avant), Fine! (indie pop-rock), Mundo Flotante (ethno-jazz-rock), Kaulakau/Cobla Sant Jordi (an ethno-jazz Catalan orchestra), Filthy Habits Ensemble (a jazz octet playing Zappa's and Stravinsky's repertoire), Cows On Trees (a jazz-improv quartet with Susana Santos Silva and Kaja Draksler), Balimonster (an impro-ethno duo with Angel Ontalva), Yedo Gibson-Vasco Trilla duo (an improv sax & drums duo), Outerzone (jazz-core), Reptilian Mambo (mambo free rock), Liba's Traum, etc.

In the last years he has been playing and experimenting on the free-improv scene, applying extended techniques to the kit and treating it as a textural-melodic instrument. Blowing, bowing, scratching, playing with hands and all kinds of objects, all is valid to expand the vocabulary of this innovative percussionist. He played with improvisers, such as: Lotte Anker, Marshall Allen, Yedo Gibson, Susana Santos Silva, Kaja Draksler, Jasper Stadhouders, Mikloaj Trzaska, Martin Kuchen, Richard Barrett, Jorma Tapio, Christher Bothen, Marc Stucki, Luc Ex. etc...

He has released around 30 CDs in labels such as Cuneiform Records (USA), Altrock Records (Italy), Leo Records (UK) Discordian Records (Barcelona, Spain), Audition Records (Mexico), El Negocito Records (Belgium), Jacc Records (Portugal), Fmr Records (UK)."

-Vasco Trilla Website (http://vascotrilla.com/)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Air 3:35

2. Acoustic Mirror 6:43

3. Drowning Bells 1:32

4. Abduction 1:32

5. Enveloping Dome 11:05

6. Aural Eclipse 4:32

7. Glas 2:52

8. Airless 3:38

9. Awake Nature From Her Dream 4:31

10. Metallic Choir 2:08

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Percussion & Drums
Solo Artist Recordings
Sound, Noise, &c.
Recordings Utilizing the Natural Resonance of a Space
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