Wire Quartet is one of saxophonist Rodrigo Amado’s working bands, together with Motion Trio and Hurricane. Recording consistently for some of the greatest European avant jazz labels like Not Two, Ayler Records or, more recently, No Business, Amado returns to the label where he released his first albums, this time with an all-Portuguese powerful outfit.

The rhythm section is the same of the well succeeded Red Trio, namely double bassist Hernâni Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini (the last one also a member of Amado’s Motion Trio), and the fourth wheel is the big surprise of this project: Manuel Mota, one of the most original and radical of today’s guitarists all over the planet, praised by the likes of Derek Bailey and Noel Akchoté. Because of him, this debut album of the Wire Quartet is the less post-bop / free jazz oriented of all of Amado’s releases, going very far into free improvised music territories. Free improv, but always with a bluesy feeling, mainly because of Mota’s finger-picking approach, and also getting close to the free rock / noise sound world, due to the rough, but very focused, exploration of guitar distortion and feedback.

The powerful, mind-blowing, drum and bass support, and the always defying Mota’s interventions, give Amado all the conditions to go beyond his own physical and creative limits and to literally explode: this CD gathers some of his most impressive performances ever recorded, confirming his growing reputation as a congregator for such diverse musical legacies as the one’s left by Ben Webster, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane or Albert Ayler. Get prepared to be lifted from the ground…