Raccolto

“Raccolto” marks the ECM debut of Stefano Battaglia. An important addition to the label’s expanding roster of Italian artists, Battaglia has made his mark as player of great capacity, heard in many contexts since the 1980s. This double album features two separate trios: the group with bassist Giovanni Maier and Michele Rabbia, which has toured as ‘Triosonic’; and the trio known as ‘Atem’, with Rabbia and French violinist Dominique Pifarély. Both groups were formed in 2001, both have roots going back much further, and each has an entirely different character. ‘Raccolto’ means ‘harvest’ and Battaglia’s recording suggests a cornucopia of inspirations: the two trios overflow with ideas. Battaglia/Maier/Rabbia offers music of a reverent lyricism, which nonetheless has its roots quite clearly in a jazz piano trio tradition, that goes back at least to Paul Bley’s ‘Footloose’. The trio with Pifarély, on the other hand, focuses on collective playing, timbral exploration, and free dissolved rhythms – all part of the language of free music, but as Battaglia points out, he and the French violinist share an interest in “creating form through improvisation, which is uncommon amongst the free players. We’re trying to make music that is very close to composition, but there are also emanations from the languages of folk music.” Drummer Rabbia plays jazz drum kit in the trio with Maier, and a percussion set “with more of the sonorities of contemporary classical music” in the trio with Pifarély, further emphasizing the distinction between CDs 1 & 2. Together they give a powerful indication of the scope of Stefano Battaglia’s musical convictions. “I find it symbolically important, “Battaglia says, “that my first ECM album is an improvisations album, free and rigorous at the same time.”