Live At Firehouse 12 documents the Daniel Levin Quartet in live performance with its current working line-up, now featuring Mat Maneri on viola. The new palette of timbres and textures afforded by the change in instrumentation from trumpet to viola provides ample opportunities for the band to explore previously uncharted territory, and the musicians take full advantage here, producing music that sounds fresh and exciting. At the same time, there is a sense of familiarity, as the music often travels along several of the distinctly original sonic paths that Daniel Levin and his quartet have forged over many years. In fact, with this recording, Levin chose to focus on four of the key compositional forms, or “archetypal images”, that have been in consistent use by the quartet since its inception in 2001. To round out the program, there are fully improvised duos from Zetterberg and Moran, and also from Levin and Maneri, who can frequently be found working as a stand-alone duo, apart from the quartet. The music that results from this unique combination of precedents and antecedents can be extremely subtle or epic; it can delight itself in the abstract marvels of timbre and texture; it can embrace the beauty of a melody while exploring rhythm in unexpected ways, but at its core, it’s always lyrical. The mysteries and intricacies within the music invite us to keep coming back to it, in order to uncover yet another layer, another detail, to have another experience of enchantment.

All compositions by Daniel Levin, Black Bear Music Industries Inc. (ASCAP) except #5 by Mat Maneri & Daniel Levin, and #6 by Matt Moran and Torbjörn Zetterberg.

Recorded on May 27, 2016 by Greg DiCrosta at Firehouse 12, New Haven | Mixed and mastered by Nick Lloyd at Firehouse 12, New Haven
Produced by Daniel Levin | Executive producer Pedro Costa | Design by Travassos | Photo credits: Daniel Levin by Joachim Ceulemans; Mat Maneri by Remi Angeli; Torbjörn Zetterberg & Matt Moran by Peter Gannushkin