Gabriele Mitelli, John Edwards, Mark Sanders – Three Tsuru Origami (We Insist Records, 2022 )

By Guido Montegrandi

“The album is a dedication to the world of birds, to the creatures of the world and their migrations.” With this statement from Three Tsuru Origami's liner notes, Mitelli (trumpet, soprano sax, electronics, voice) fixes the ideal coordinates of his work with John Edwards (double bass) and Mark Sanders (drums, objects).

The word “migration” in a broad sense seems to be the key to this work, migration as a display of great energy, everyday courage; migration as the artist’s sound: an “alien sound that comes in peace to find its own space (…) and, like everything that is different, is greeted with suspicion (…). Inspiration and the creative act come from afar(…) they have to go through a long process of migration and integration” (from Mitelli’s cover notes).

Birds like symbols: The Eagle and the Hawk - Go Godwit Go - Three Tsuru Origami - The Indian Geese and Himalaya - Green Lake, Black Bird - their stories give shape to the sound of the trio and open a different point of view (The stories behind each of these titles can be found in the cover notes).

photo by Giubracalia

Those are the thoughts that make up the framework in which music plays, and music is played with intensity and commitment.

The record opens with “The New One” a piece by Sean Bergin, he himself a migrant, one of the expatriates on South African jazz scene during the apartheid. It is a classical free piece reminiscent of the lesson of Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman in which the three musicians exhibit their carefully carved intersections.

The second track, “The Eagle and The Hawk,” shows the other side of the trio, electroacoustic noises and a double bass that extends its sonority in the lower level of the mix.

Now the coordinates are set and the rest of the record moves between these extremes with feathery freedom.

The third piece, “Go Godwit Go,” is dedicated to the bird which can be taken as symbol of the idea of migration itself: The Godwit (Limosa lapponica) every year migrates from Alaska to Australia and New Zeland with a ten days nonstop flight.

The music starts from sparse noises on free bass and drum lines then the trumpet emerges to build a fragmented melody, which seems to translate the godwit bird song into a sonic memory.

“Fly Away” is marked by a beautiful bass solo and all of the other pieces confirm the perfect interplay that the three musicians have developed gifting us with a music that is always on the edge, with a sense of balance between sound and silence, melody and noise (Three Tsuru Origami). My favourite piece, “The Indian Geese and Himalaya”, displays at his best the sound of three talented musicians intensely conversing and listening to each other.

The final “Ritual part 3” is a rendition of a Composition by Mariam Wallentin, Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin, a beautiful piece that concludes a work that is absolutely worth listening and makes me hope that the three of them will re-join in the future for another flight together.

Available on Bandcamp