Cosa Brava - The Letter (2012)

Artista: Cosa Brava

Álbum: The Letter
Año: 2012
Género: R.I.O. / Avant Prog
Duración: 61:01
Nacionalidad: EEUU

Lista de Temas:
1. Soul of the Machine
2. The Eyjafjallaj?kull Tango
3. Drowning
4. The Wedding
5. The Letter
6. Slings and Arrows
7. Jitters
8. For Lars Hollmer
9. Emigrants
10. Nobody Told Me
11. Common Sense
12. Soul of the Machine (reprise)

Alineación:
- Fred Frith / guitar, voice
- Carla Kihlstedt / violin, bass harmonica, voice
- Zeena Parkins / accordion, keyboards, Foley objects, voice
- Shahzad Ismaily / bass, voice
- Matthias Bossi / drums, percussion, mayhem, voice, whistling
- The Norman Conquest / sound manipulation
Collaborators:
Michael Elrod / tambura
William Winant / concert bass drum, crotales

Otro tremendo aporte de Alberto, un disco que me resulta exquisito, delicioso... es el segundo álbum de esta banda que reúne grandísimos nombres del Avant Garde y la música experimental. La música de esta segunda entrega sigue las mismas líneas de su debut "Ragged Atlas": rock experimentalmás pesado que el primero.

El segundo album de Cosa Brava tuvo varias locaciones y estuvo cocinándose casi por dos años, después de Ragged Atlas, Fred Frith y compañía se tomaron un tiempillo para seguir produciendo en la misma línea de su antecesor álbum, canciones que varían entre complejidades y arreglos exquisitos,y con un desarrollo con más power en algunos pasajes pero siempre con un alto vuelo, es digno de mencionar los arreglos de cuerdas que sobresalen en todo el álbum. Hasta un tanguito futurista se mandaron los muchachos, este álbum es muchísimo más producido que el anterior y el buen gusto reina sobremanera.
Quizás como nunca uno puede apreciar cada instrumento y cada chiche en su justo lugar, hay momentos tranquilos, otros ásperos, pero siempre se mantiene una atmósfera casi de ensueño, podría definir esta obra como un divague musical perfecto.
Quizás se podría discrepar sobre la estructura de las improvisaciones, pero eso sería entrar en un terreno fangoso y de poco sustento, porque inevitablemente estaríamos comparando Ragged con The Letter y son dos cosas distintas, aparte desde que lugar uno podría encaramarse en la crítica, cuando estamos frente a un diseñador del R.I.O y del Avant Garde, considero que hay artistas que están más allá de la crítica y Fred Firth es uno de ellos.
La innovación es una constante en esta obra, desde la máquina de escribir en "The Letter" hasta los arreglos digitales en "Jitters" (acá lo hizo Spinetta en "El Lenguaje del Cielo" y el efecto auditivo es idéntico). Bueno, el Flaco es otro incuestionable también.
Dedicarle un tema a Lars Hollmer (Samla Mammas Manna) de más de ocho minutos con una simpleza y dulzura que conmueve, no hace más que reflejar la humildad de los grandes, pero eso es una mera apreciación mía.
Este trabajo te sorprende a cada momento, las oleadas musicales son de un buen gusto increíble, y destaco nuevamente la producción musical en la mezcla y la masterización, los planos sonoros son casi académicos, no por la ejecución, sino porque podrían fácilmente incluirse como materia de consulta en cualquier conservatorio de música, y Frith se encargó de producir este disco y de buscar para cada canción hasta ingenieros de sonido y masterizaciones distintas en Alemania, Francia y Estados Unidos, ningún improvisado este señor.
Todo suena puro y brillante, y ésta es creo, la mejor frase para describir a "The Letter".
Seguramente Cosa Brava con sus dos discos hasta el momento sigue marcando tendencia y el espectro musical seguramente se seguirá abriendo a estos proyectos, que ayer pudo haber contenido a Henry Cow y mañana quien sabe, pero la certeza es que estas obras enriquecen tu oído, penetran hasta el alma, y dejan una estela inmensa para lo que vendrá, y nunca como en este caso el futuro es mas intrigante y promisorio.
Escuchar este tipo de música no solo te hace evolucionar como humano, sino que te enriquece el espíritu, que al igual que la musica, NO SE VE, pero internamente vos sabes que esta "ahi".

Alberto

Tambipen siguiendo lo que dejo el primer disco donde dedicaban temas a músicos compañeros como Tom Zé, aquí también se le dedica un tema a un gran músico ya fallecido, a Lars Holmer. Pero más allá de eso, considero que éste es un disco que no se pueden perder.
Quizás a mí y a Alberto no nos crean, pero para convencerlos de que este disco está tremendo, tenemos el comentario de nuestro columnista ocasional e involuntario de siempre con la siguiente reseña...

COSA BRAVA vuelve a la actividad fonográfica y hoy nos ocupamos de ello. En efecto, este ensamble de vanguardia progresiva que tiene en Fred Frith (legendario guitarrista de HENRY COW, ART BEARS, MASSACRE, SKELETON CREW y otros referentes más de la experimentación contemporánea) a su figura líder saca al mercado “The Letter” dos años después de la edición de su álbum debut “Ragged Atlas” (el cual había sido grabado en diciembre de 2008). Además de la permanencia de Carla Kihlstedt (violín, armónica bajo, voz), Zeena Parkins (acordeón, teclados, objetos raros, voz – con un currículum que incluye membresías en NEWS FROM BABEL y SKELETON CREW) y The Norman Conquest (manipulaciones de sonido), el grupo ha aumentado sus afiliaciones con el ingreso del bajista Shahzad Ismaily y del baterista/percusionista Matthias Bossi (también colega de Carla Kihlstedt en otros proyectos musicales, incluyendo a SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM). Con todo, esto no ha conllevado, como se podría razonablemente sospechar, un sonido más lleno en cuanto a agresividad, sino más bien un aumento de recursos a la hora de desarrollar los habituales coloridos excéntricos y desafiantes que COSA BRAVA convierte en marca propia. De hecho, este nuevo disco incorpora un mayor peso de los elementos World Music y folk que se amalgaman con otros dentro de su bizarra propuesta. Con una figura de larga trayectoria como Fred Frith al frente y una congregación de jóvenes veteranos cooperando activamente en la misión creativa, este ensamble encarna fehacientemente la comunión entre algunas tradiciones específicas del R.I.O. y nuevas concepciones sobre el ideal de hacer rock novedoso. Ocasionalmente, Michael Elrod y William Winant colaboran con el ahora sexteto aportando percusiones adicionales.
‘Soul Of The Machine’ abre el disco como un artilugio de ingeniería, un mecanismo que marca el ritmo robótico con el que la sociedad moderna da sus imponentes pasos de gigante a través del tiempo; de este modo, se abre camino para que surja ‘The Eyjafjallajökull Tango’, tema extravagantemente colorido, cuya juguetona complejidad suena como un intermedio entre KRONOS QUARTET y HAMSTER THEATRE, cálido pero denso, amable pero no exento de peligro. La secuencia de ‘Drowning’ y ‘The Wedding’ nos lleva hacia terrenos más oscuros e inquietantes: ‘Drowning’ es como una memoria perdida de un momento en la infancia donde el ambiente circense ocasional mostró una faceta aterradora, mientras que ‘The Wedding’ se basa en una remodelación abstracta de atmósferas folclóricas y flotantes ambientes psicodélicos, sucesivamente. La quinta pieza es justamente la que da título al álbum, y se caracteriza tanto por el peso que tienen los retumbos de la batería dentro del bloque instrumental como por la ceremoniosidad cuasi-gótica a lo SGM que aportan los arreglos vocales; también vale mencionar el uso de la máquina de escribir como utensilio percusivo directamente alusivo al hecho de escribir mensajes a la conciencia pública. ‘Slings And Arrows’ es una pieza abiertamente deconstructivista que se enraíza poderosamente en los legados Henry Cowianos de “In Praise Of Learning” y “Western Culture”, lo cual implica un manejo cuidadoso de texturas, un afán por crear y reforzar atmósferas misteriosas, y una sensación de esperar lo inesperado, que es justamente lo que ocurre cuando irrumpe una secuencia percusiva cuya robustez se retroalimenta con los descoyuntados efluvios guitarreros de Frith. La tensión que se liberó en la secuencia final de ‘Slings And Arrows’ despejó el camino para que ‘Jitters’ despliegue su propia arquitectura, neuróticamente dividida en secuencias reconocibles que se reiteran en ciclos bien definidos, manejados con un punche pulcramente equilibrado entre los músicos involucrados.
El octavo tema nos engancha de entrada por su título tan entrañable: ‘For Lars Hollmer’ – claramente, se trata de una pieza compuesta en honor a la memoria de una de las figuras más emblemáticas e influyentes de toda la historia de la vanguardia progresiva, el Maestro Lars Hollmer, teclista, acordeonista, percusionista y bizarro vocalista de SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA, ZAMLA MAMMAZ MANN, VON ZAMLA, etc. Esta pieza sirve para que COSA BRAVA explore fehacientemente sus aristas más expresamente líricas, aunque sin renunciar a su filo esencialmente experimental: pasando de pasajes relajantes a otros más cadenciosos de tendencia folk, el grupo construye una armazón musical evocativa y elegante, pulcra como la más lujosa porcelana, cándida como el más refinado terciopelo. La parte más emotiva es el final, con esa combinación de espartanas notas de acordeón, palmas y falsetes que retratan los últimos pasos del Maestro Hollmer hacia las Puertas del Más Allá. Esta celebración da lugar a otra, ‘Emigrants’, tema que porta aires indios y carpatienses que son ingeniosamente retorcidos por amenazantes síncopas psicodélicas en ciertos momentos estratégicos. ‘Nobody Told Me’ vuelve un poco a la languidez oscurantista y abstracta de ‘Slings And Arrows’, aunque esta vez el grupo usa esta estrategia desde un punto de vista farsesco, usando un arreglo coral que suena como un aquelarre de espíritus vetustos que se explayan en sus quejumbrosas observaciones sobre el mundo que les rodea. La breve sección final se enfila hacia una sonoridad rockera ácida y adusta, un clímax tal vez demasiado efímero. Así las cosas, ‘Common Sense’ nos enfila hacia las dimensiones más serenas del ideario musical de COSA BRAVA, explayándose en climas contemplativos que encapsulan unas imperativamente elegantes secuencias de retazos auto-constreñidos donde reina un espíritu minimalista, y a la vez, candoroso. El final del álbum vira hacia una retoma del primer tema: en efecto, ‘Soul Of The Machine (Reprise)’ reconstruye la neurótica vivacidad maquinista que había servido de obertura para el álbum, dejando así que la luz de juguetona tensión ilumine los parajes que antes habían quedado arropados bajo la espiritualidad nocturna de ‘Common Sense’.
Todo esto fue “The Letter”, una tremendamente creativa misiva de música progresiva concebida desde las orillas más vanguardistas del plurivalente género. COSA BRAVA afianza su lugar como un referente especialmente valioso dentro de las vertientes de línea avant-progresiva desarrolladas en los últimos años.

César Inca

Y acá algunos otros comentarios en inglés... Lean, lean, lean lo que dicen de esta belleza de disco.

The Context
This review would never happen without the important event held at Apple cafe in Jombang, East Java, Indonesia on the evening of September 19, 2014 (Friday). That was the first time I knew the name Cosa Brava from my prog mate Edi Santoso (usually I call him with "Mas Edi"). Well, actually mas Edi owns the cafe and he invited me to have a wonderful chat on progressive music PLUS. I say plus because we did not talk only about progressive music but also anything related to progressive life. So we agreed that PROG is not just the music but it's a PHILOSOPHY because it goes beyond music. Take a good example of Mas Edi. Yes, he is the die hard core fan of prog music especially in the area of RIO or he call it as "rock mbeling" (local words that mean: "naughty rock") which essentially depicts the description of what the RIO/Avant-garde music is all about. Of course he also loves things like Beardfish, The Flower Kings as well as Opeth and also legends like Genesis. In fact his Apple Cafe is a true prog cafe in a real sense: you can find many prog artwork like Genesis' Selling England By The Pound or King Crimson's In The Court repainted nicely at the walls of the cafe. Do not tak about copy act right ya ... But it's really prog nuances built inside the cafe. If you are real prog person, you would love the cafe - I guarantee ! So ..come to Indonesia mates! I will show you great prog places around ....
Mas Edi has taken prog spirit to the next level, applied in real life not as musician as both of us are not musicians and our friendship so far has been based on our shared taste of prog music plus prog spirit of course. What I mean here is that his decision to carry on his life by taking care his own mother who also live with him in that prog cafe. According to Islamic teaching, taking care of your own parents is number one priority after worshipping only ONE God - Allah subhanahu wa taala. So, he has taken life progressively from serving only his own family (wife and two sons) and now to include taking care of his own mother who is old and sometimes getting sick. So ...you can now imagine how deep our PROG discussion on that ProgRing event ....
The Music
I might send you big apology to describe the novel long context as part of this review because to me prog music is not just music ...it goes beyond music ... it's about friendship and long lasting relation with others. You can use the spirit of PROG in day to day life and you will find PROG with joy. Yes, initially I met people like mas Edi because of the need to form coalition of people who share similar taste in music. But after that we talk many things that go beyond the limits of musical taste.
I was very lucky meeting with him at that event where we discussed about prog at one corner of the cafe where the poster of Beardfish bassist was put on the wall. The first thing asked him was: "Who plays this music" when I heard the loudspeaker sounded the music that I never heard before, packed with violin sounds. He said it humbly : "Cosa Brava". And then I said "What? How do you spell it?". That indicates how new the name came into my mind, really! Yeah ...finally I got it right after he spelled it out for me: COSA BRAVA. What a great name!
You know ...what was the first impression about the music of Cosa Brava? Very unstructured ...and very unpredictable! When I listened to the violin of Haggard, I could sort of predict where the music would go. Or with Jean Luc Ponty or Didier Lockwood ...generally I can get an overall sense on where the music is going. But definitely not for Cosa Brava. But ...even though unstructered, I really enjoy how the music flew while Mas Edi talked with me. Of course, as senior prog head he has abundant knowledge about who's who in Cosa Brava as well as other RIO music. It was quite hard for me to understand the music as everything was unpredictable. But ... in enjoying music, do I need to understand? I thought about it quite sometime and posted that question to Mas Edi. His answer was really simple: "The composition must be excellent because the musicians are all talented persons ... The only thing is because we do not get used to it ...". WOW! What a wise prog words for me really .... I made a long pause from the discussion and I remember vividly I was hearing the sounds of mechanical typewriter we typically had in the past ....you know the Brother or IBM trade mark of typewriter. What really a great nuance created from the sound!
We continued the prog discussion while letting the stereo set played this album by Cosa Brava. In some segments I requested some pause for a while to discuss the subtleties of the particular segment. Then I noticed that the beauty of enjoying RIO (rock mbeling) music is by letting the music flow as it is and enjoy any segment the music gives to me; do not ever try to predict what is going to happen ... Do not expect nice melody that plays across all segments in longer duration. The melody is at every segment. It's kind like disjointed at first experience. But as time passes by it will definitely grow on you. At first I could only enjoy the section with drums on second track titled strangely as "The Eyjafjallajkull Tango" (6:48). The combined drums and violin work is really stunning!
In this kind of music, I think the most important thing to understand the music, if we want to, is putting ourselves as the musician. This music must have been created for a reason, possibly to support the acts of certain story plot. In this case, of course it revolves around The Letter. Honestly, in this particular album, I know nothing about the plot but it must be something to do with a series of acts that depicts certain life situation where Letter becomes one of the critical point of the story - and then you have other events like Drowning, The Wedding, Nobody Told Me as well as Common Sense. How can I find my joy listening to this album? Through a series of segments that in themselves provide provide a profound experience for me, personally. One thing that makes me happy with this album is its sound quality which I consider as top class! You can hear all subtleties of the music throughout the tracks presented in this album. All the detailed work of each musician can be enjoyed in its utmost clarity especially if you play it at the decent stereo set using at least B&W speakers, or other high end sound system.
Judging from musical composition point of view, I would opt to say that "For Lars Hollmer", "The Eyjafjallajkull Tango", "The Letter", and "Common Sense" are favorite tracks. But the problem is then the track cannot be played its own as it must be placed on sequential basis ... So this kind of album can only be enjoyed if I play it in its entirety from start to end. I can find the brilliance of the musicians creating this intelligently crafted music for us. High salute to all musicians involved in this album!
What do you expect from me with the above novel-long elaboration? It's a FULL five star rating! Keep on proggin' ...!

Gatot Widayanto

Ok, after Cosa Brava's first masterful album, "Ragged Atlas", I really couldn't wait for what Fred Frith and Co. had coming up next. Pretty much a RIO supergroup consisting of Frith (Henry Cow and much more), along with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's violinist and drummer (and husband and wife), Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi, respectively, along with Zeena Parkins (News From Babel), Secret Chiefs 3 bassist Shazad Ismaily, and the Norman Conquest doing production and sound engineering, Cosa Brava line-up is one of the more interesting ones for any fan of RIO and experimental music in general. With "the Letter", Frith once again displays his songwriting skills after many years of mostly exploring the improvisational side of music, mostly as a solo artist. Now with a full band and fully composed songs- Frith manages to show that he is one of the more versatile musicians today and ever. Frankly, the man is a genius. And this is one of the best album's he has made and truly up there for best albums for 2012.
The band's sound could be described as folky, jazzy, breathy, and less angular, than much of Frith's other work. The songs are heavily composed, played with near-perfection, the virtuosity of the musicians clearly visible. The song structures at times are very complicated, but done with such subtlety that in the beginning you won't even notice it. It is from multiple listens that you fully understand how much hard work must have been put make this music work, as the pinpoint accuracy by the musicians sounds so fluid but the more you listen the more you realize (well, not surprisingly) how Frith's melodies and rhythms are unorthodox.
It is a good thing Frith got on board of this album some of the best musicians out today, because thanks to them "The Letter" manages successfully to take these songs up and over what anyone would expect. Carla Kihlstedt, who I regard as one of my favorite musicians of today, manages to make her violin speak the melodies better than most people could. Her lines run along the album, cryptic at times, mysterious, and at other times being at the front, leading the song along. She has yet to touch an album that isn't at least worth a listen. Her husband, Matthias Bossi, has always had a minimalistic drumming style- and it works fantastically with the fairly calm atmosphere the album has, little sputters that give a lot to the album. I'd say, though, that probably the strongest element this album has is its production. The Norman Conquest, as he calls himself, manages to give the album such an open, breathy sound. Like there is always another layer of sound beating right under the one you just discovered- and many times there is another layer, which just makes you understand how thought out "The Letter" is. It is a "looking back to the past and sighing" album at times, and a strangely disturbing album at other times, as other-wordly psychedelic thingamabobs (auto-correct actually didn't spell check that!) and Frith's often sneering guitar work. It is in songs like "Jitters", which I thought in the beginning was just the CD being scratched (you know when a sound repeats itself), that the weird experimentation side that we all know and love a little more up front. This also happens to be one of the best songs on the album, and one of the more upbeat ones. The melodic beauty is always present on this album, but in songs such as the pen-ultimate "Common Sense" that can drive a simpleton to tears (may I add that there's a live version of the song somewhere in Youtube along with another fantastic 30 minutes of music).
I can't say I'm surprised I enjoyed this album so much, but this album is something else. Frith's songwriting is fantastic and heart wrenching at times, the band sounds tight as hell, and the production is some of the best I've heard. "The Letter" is an absolute masterpiece of music. I ain't afraid to say it.

Ori

Cosa Brava is about storytelling. I don't think about it too much. It just turned out that way. Some of the stories have words and some don't, but they share a sense of scenes glimpsed in passing. Torn photos, fragments of movies, distant shouts. One of my earliest memories is of a long drive north, as our family moved away from London to start a new life in the Yorkshire dales. I remember the smell of the car, and passing our broken down removals lorry in the middle of night. I was four years old, and sometimes it feels like I've been on the road ever since. I need to travel, and now my life depends on it, so there's never a shortage of stories. The musicians of Cosa Brava are fellow nomads and experienced collaborators, and some of the best storytellers around, so my stories also become their stories. It's been an exhilarating journey, and I still have no idea where we're going. In the end it doesn't seem very important.

Fred Frith