CORE Records is crossing genres, cultures and boundaries, and this is certainly the case with Johannes Brecht Trio’s first album “Disparaître”—apparently recorded through improvisation over a jam session of 3 days.
Johannes Brecht is an accomplished composer and music producer who wants to get back to his roots. With his new album “Disparaître”, he attempts to fade into the background, communing as a trio around a musical equidistance between Electro and Jazz, and cites a number of essential influences that show the blend of this new album, names like Miles Davis, John Coltrane for Basic Channel Jazz, or Aphex Twin for Electro.
The artist has a background in Jazz music and has played for many years with his bandmates Antonio Farris and Matteo Capreoli, who accompany him on this release, while each having had their own solo careers. But “Disparaître” intends to revive the Electronic musician’s Jazz roots by emphasizing more acoustic sounds around a multi-faceted blend of numerous sub-genres, intending to transcend the shackles of musical genres altogether.
“New Grass”, the single released a little earlier in May, gave us a foretaste: Pitou’s ethereal voice (reminiscent of an Imogen Heap style) and an ultra-modern sound combining Electronica, Jazz, and a New Age ambience. But there’s more to the album than that…
On the one hand, it’s witty, melodic and solemn—it’s as light as a breeze, with volatile, atmospheric compositions like the second. On the other hand, several tracks are very rhythmic and ultra-modern (such as “Call Me Monday”).
The blend of genres is most evident in the ability of each track to surprise us. Lively rhythms burst forth when a much calmer mood is set, as if the album were capricious, revealing its full power only in bits and pieces, giving way to one genre or another as the tracks progress. Like a game of hide-and-seek, where you don’t fully show yourself, then suddenly jump out from behind a tree with the most radiant smile on your face. Disparaître translates into disappear in English, and perhaps it doesn’t just mean to disappear behind the music but to also reflect on the richness of this album and its music with its ability to show certain genres rather than others, or all at once.
Disparaître is a surprising album, landing somewhere between Ambient, Acoustic, Jazz, and Electro with Acid touches and groovy, dance-y sounds. Some tracks are totally suited to being played on a (slightly quiet) dancefloor. Others are marvelous melodies to be enjoyed calmly—to listen to at home while sipping iced tea in the garden, like with the second track that I particularly like—a kind of call to the spirit of the wind that tells you: be at ease!
-Hugo Bingler
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