Since forming in March 2021, the Liba Villavecchia Trio have channelled a singular spiritual mien, borne of shared experience, reflection and reminiscence, with previous albums, Zaidín (2022) and Birchwood (2023) capturing the group’s esprit de corps in vividly contrasting approaches, hopscotching from propulsive swing and fractious bustle, to smouldering disquisition and evocative abstraction.

Now with the addition of versatile Lisbon-based trumpeter Luís Vicente to their ranks, saxophonist Villavecchia, drummer Vasco Trilla and double-bassist Alex Reviriego amplify this exceptional Iberian hivemind, transforming magic triangle into squared circle.

On Muracik, an intensive Robert Musil-like assay into the collective soul, this auspicious union lays bare a detailed anatomy of regional commonalities – common roots, perceptions, memories and feelings – realised through effusive composition and impassioned improv, alternating between locomotive bursts of punchy horn-led lyricism and enigmatic passages of allusive dissonance.

Together the quartet become conduits for sounds, sonorities and sensations from their native peninsula – the breeze of westerly winds, the clickity chirrup of gossiping cicadas kicking it in the sun, the crunch of arid soil trodden beneath the boots of millenary peasants – while also paying homage to absent friends (both human and non-human), as well as sax titan Ornette Coleman, the icon’s influence writ large throughout this most profoundly expressive, revealing and unapologetically emotional of works.

Tracks #1, 3 and 6 by Liba Villavecchia | Tracks #2 and 4 by Alex Reviriego | Track #5 by Luis Vicente

Recorded by Jesús Rovira at La Casamurada in November 2022 | Mixed by Pablo Miranda at Laisla Studio, Barcelona | Mastered by Colin Marston at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves | Text Translation by Lucas Villavecchia
Produced by Liba Villavecchia | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos