what we see while we walk and what we walk while thinking|cs147

Numa evidente “charge” à fórmula mais impactante do rock (o trio de guitarra, baixo e bateria com doses maciças de distorção e “riffs” em catadupa), o Powertrio tem aqui o seu disco de estreia e é uma excelente surpresa. Com as participações de Eduardo Raon (harpa, electrónica), Joana Sá (piano e piano de brinquedo) e Luís José Martins (guitarra clássica), o que aqui vem tem óbvias relações com a música contemporânea, valorizando-se tanto a textura como o timbre num âmbito camerístico. Digno de nota é verificar os percursos destes músicos: Raon é um dos membros do grupo Hipnótica, situado algures entre o pop-rock sofisticado dos Radiohead e o jazz de fusão dos anos 1970, Sá é uma intérprete da obra de John Cage para piano e Martins um dos fundadores do colectivo de música popular portuguesa Deolinda. Todos eles têm uma actividade paralela nos domínios da improvisação e o resultado está à vista. Rui Eduardo Paes

Could they have chosen a worse name? Eduardo Raon (harp/electronics), Joana Sá (piano/toy piano) & Luis Martíns (classical guitar) produce a good bit of spicky improv, leavened with some calmer stretches. The improv works reasonably well but, as with many such groups (at least as evidenced here), I find I prefer the music the "straighter" it gets; it seems to me that's where their strength lies, as on the title cut, one of two composed pieces (by Raon) and a fine one. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

Ein POWERTRIO, das mit Harfe & Electronics, Piano & Toy Piano und Konzertgitarre zwischen Música Contemporânea und Música Nova Improvisação changiert? Die ‚Ouverture‘ zu What We Think When We Walk And What We Walk While Thinking (cs 147) spielen Eduardo Raon, Joana Sá und Luís Martins in Begleitung von Grillen und Fröschen. Das Titelstück wurde von Raon komponiert, ‚Hart auf Hart‘ ist eine musikalische Graphik von Gerhard Stäbler. Die Drei sind schwer auf Draht, getrauen sich krasse Effekte und Kontraste, das Piano wird unter Sás Fingern zur Trick- und Rumpelkiste. Die Grenzen zwischen tierisch und artifiziell, elektronisch und akustisch, zart und grob werden unscharf und hinfällig, der Thrillfaktor ist erstaunlich. Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy)

Com as participações de Eduardo Raon (harpa e electronica), Joana Sá (piano e piano de brinquedo) e Luis José Martins (guitarra clássica), o que aqui vem tem óbvias relações com a música contemporânea, ainda que sob a égide da improvisação. Raon é um dos menbros dos Hipnótica, situados algures entre o pop-rock sofisticado dos Radiohead e o jazz de fusão, Sá é uma intérprete da obra de John Cage para piano e Martins um dos fundadores do colectivo de música popular portuguesa Deolinda. Uma optima surpresa. Alberto Mourão (Jazz.pt)

The label "Power Trio" is usually wrapped around the following motif: three scruffy guys with amplified instruments, searching for Heaven in twenty minute solos, or three scruffy guys (three girls if they wear bloody "riot grrl" etchings on their chests) with really amplified instruments, offering immediate three-minute jams. With their fey ensemble of toy piano, harp, classical guitar and electronics, Portugal based Joana Sá, Luís Martins, Eduardo Raon are bent on changing these assumptions with a "narrative based on intensity".
Coming from the "Instant Composition" school (specifically the Franco Evangelisti and Ennio Morricone driven collective, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consananza), where notes are recorded to tape, not staff paper, Powertrio navigates through five improvisations, two original works and Gerhard Stäbler's Hart Auf Hart (tough and tough). Beginning with "Ouverture" (sic), the trio delivers its first wallop, a vertical simultaneity of slapped instruments and its residue, a resonant combination of millennial harmonic clusters. The members pause then repeat this act, several times, each blast carrying more weight while violent obstacles gradually find their way into the silent spaces. After the sound of the sky ripping in two, the group settles into a lilting, contemplative mix of hushed pointillism, Raon ending the set with a veiled electronic darkness of twilit field recordings. On the title piece, the trio pursues a similar trail of staccato attack/pensive openness, Raon and Martins offering similar nervous arpeggio patterns on harp and guitar, respectively, as Sá strums and creaks her piano's sound-board. Just before the meanders wear thin, the work unfolds into an alien sound-scape, an accompaniment of reflections from the previous performance alongside a lone, mysterious plucking string, unnaturally low and desperately trying to stay in tune. The first three improvisations, though dressed as nameless interludes, offer insight into the band's amazing ability to construct a single intricate texture whose parts achieve anonymity within the whole, whether gossamer and synthetic ("Improvisation I") or frantic and acoustic ("Improvisation II", "Improvisation III"). The highlight of the album is the reading of Stäbler's red and black barcode-covered graphical score. Inspired by Antonin Artaud, Stäbler's extra-musical instructions suggest a focus on performance/theater space and a rejection of "man and his abilities... broadening to infinity the boundaries of what is usually called reality". Powertrio runs with these options, turning act one into a glitchy toy piano and high register experience, mulching act two into a spooky sine wave détente and bludgeoning the third movement with primal instrument blitzkrieg and near-eviscerating distortion.
Music stands out front of the performers or not, all of these pieces display a universal aesthetic: a dimension of prolonged time, effluent gestures and reverberated shadows held fast by an internal cohesiveness that only comes from an extensive and intimate artistic collaboration shared by its creators. Dave Madden (The Squid's Ear)

Powertrio are Eduardo Raon (harp, electronics), Joana Sá (piano, toy piano) and Luís Martins (classical guitar). In the 33 minutes of this CD they reveal themselves to be a very interesting ensemble, working in serious commitment at the margins of a somewhat disturbed quietness, even if not exactly in a “reductionist” sense (on the contrary, occasionally erupting in full-exhilaration mode in pieces such as “Improvisation II” and “Hart Auf Hart”). The notes played and the noise made are always clearly exposed, perhaps slightly modified by the electronic treatments while maintaining a degree of palpability which generates a welcome tension in the music. Their structures are often scraggy and ill-coloured yet possess an evident definition and show personality to spare. The resonance factor is in great evidence, and the ability of letting every event manifest visibly before fading to grey is worth of praise. And, what’s more, the record is greatly functional also in the habitual “open-window” test which I systematically run with this kind of stuff: it meshes gorgeously with the environment, but the presence remains commanding due to its bigger body of sound. Excellent, sober, intelligent work at times surrounded by a late XIX century classic aura. Recommended. Massimo Ricci (Temporry Fault)

Dobry przyk?ad improwizacji narracyjnej, gdzie jest miejsce na s?uchanie sie³ nawzajem, a nie robienie z muzyki improwizowanej cia³g?ego sola 3 róz²nych muzyków odgrywaja³cych swoje odre³bne zupe?nie historie.Oparte na kompozycjach Gerhard Stäbler'a Hart Auf Hart muzyka tria nie traci na impecie z czasem.To muzyka bardzo uniwersalna w swym wyrazie, nie powoduje zme³czenia i przecia³z²enia nadbudowa³ struktury czy tres´ci. Astipalea Records (Felthat)