Fiction, folklore and everyday sounds fuel the compositions of NY pianist Angelica Sanchez, with her trio of Michael Formanek on double bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, the band explores concepts of lucid dreaming, backyard birds, novels, mythical creatures and ancient structures, in a magnificent album of inspired free improvisation.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2017 Country: Portugal Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at Systems Two Studios, Brooklyn, New York, on July 12th, 2016, by Joe Marciano.
"The tracks on Float the Edge reference fiction and folklore, nature and the world around and in us. Opener "Shapishico," marked by rhythmic fluidity and a quicksilver solo by Sanchez, refers to a mythical creature also known as Chullachaqui, a shapeshifting guardian of the Amazon forests of Peru and Brazil that can take the form of an animal or a man.
Starting with an extended, hook-filled Formanek solo, "SOWF (Substance of We Feeling)" references Dora Lessing's novel Shikasta and its term for a quality of empathy that separated men from animals in a golden age. The hushed free improvisation "Hypnagogia," which begins with a Sorey/Formanek soundscape, takes its title from the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, with Sanchez getting some of her musical ideas when experiencing this threshold of consciousness between sleep and wakefulness.
"Float the Edge" and "The Traveler" are two more free improvisations, raucous and muscular by turns. "Pyramid" features Formanek arco as Sanchez unspools pearls of sound from the keyboard.
The title of "What the Birds Tell Me" comes from all the avian music Sanchez hears in her backyard, with the balladic melody reflecting its inspiration. Complete with a Sorey drum solo, the mysterious, 10-and-a-half-minute "Black Flutter" ends the album on a high."-Clean Feed