Performing as part of the Blow Out Festival 2019, the UK improvising trio Shifa, meaning "healing", of Rachel Musson on tenor saxophone, Pat Thomas on piano, and Mark Sanders on drums, are captured live in Oslo for four dramatic and masterful collective improvisations, passionate and building works, releasing their tension and rebuilding in powerful waves.
Label: 577 Records Catalog ID: 5840 Squidco Product Code: 29680
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2020 Country: USA Packaging: Digipack Recorded at Blow Out in Deichman Grunerlokka, Oslo, Norway, on August 17th, 2019, by Stig Gunnar Ringen.
"Live in Oslo is the sophomore album from Shifa, the outstanding UK trio featuring pianist extraordinaire Pat Thomas, celebrated saxophonist Rachel Musson, and sonic transcendent drummer Mark Sanders. The group derives its name from the Arabic word for healing and the music they make aspires to do just that.
This album follows their acclaimed, Downbeat 4-star debut Shifa Live at Cafe Oto. Listen to Shifa Live in Oslo and discover contemporary master musicians celebrating the moment with fearless improvisational music inspired by silence and sound."-577 Records
"Shifa Live in Oslo was recorded live as part of the Blow Out Festival 2019. The festival is always a special event on the European improvised music calendar and presents a mix of local and international artists. This particular year the concerts took place in a beautiful public library, and it felt a bit surreal creating so much sound surrounded by books, in a room usually associated with silence." - Rachel Musson
"Shifa is an improvising trio with Rachel Musson on tenor saxophone, Pat Thomas on piano and Mark Sanders on drums. Its name is derived from the Arabic word shifa'a, which means healing. It's a trio that has played a number of gigs in UK and recorded a live gig at Café Oto. Live In Oslo on the Brooklyn label is their second album. On the vinyl album there are two tracks, Taste, at 18.18mins, and Blas, at 15.46, but the live performance was straight through, and one should endeavour to listen to it as one single performance.
It is a very powerful performance that brings out all the excitement and variety that the best of improvised music can create. The improvisations flow in different directions, yet there is always a logic to them in the way that they create a series of arcs that gradually build up to a climax and then relax. Rachel Musson's playing is much forceful here as compared to that on her recent duo album with Corey Mwamba What We Said When We Met; she moves from quite jagged phrases to melodic phrases, and always seems to have a set of fresh ideas. Pat Thomas varies from providing a strong rhythmic support for Rachel to interacting with her in a kind of call and response process. Mark Sanders provides an always unpredictable set of rhythmic variations that are just right for this trio."-Tony Dudley Evans, TDE Promotion