Domino - Domino's Tales [Slam]

Domino:

Marco Colonna - bass clarinet, baritone & soprano saxophones

Francesco Lo Cascio - vibraphone, percussion

Lillo Quaratino - double bass

Slam Productions 2011

A good music is like a good story, you follow it closely, focused, wanting to know what happens next, waiting impatiently for the each next chapter, you appreciate it more it the intriguing storyline goes hand to hand with skillfull narration and sense of structure. And that's exactly what Marco Colonna, Francesco Lo Cascio and Lillo Quarantino are doing in here - telling tales.

With Francesco Lo Cascio splitting his time between the vibraphone and percussion this trio manages to create a varied set of music that never looses its direction yet shines with a variety of moods and tones. To begin with the melismatic soprano, enigmatic percussion and just one misty chord of vibraphone in the short "Prologue" followed by pensieve and surreal, suspended time (over a long bowed notes and vibraphone smudged chords) of "Tale of Colours" led by the strong yet gentle sound of bass clarinet, patiently unwinding the story. To finish with eerie tones of the metallic plates, elegiac melody of bowed bass joined by a bass clarinet in "Ending".

Inbetween there's the passionate and spiritual playing in "The Tale of Souls", the sweet if uneasy tale of Christmas, the echoes of ancient rites (shakahuchi sound, resonating gongs) in "The Tale of Rituals", the soulfull baritone in "The Tale of Dances". Some of these pieces are just pristine miniatures, pictoresque sketches (take the repetitive vibraphone theme of "The Tale of Fairies" as an example). What they all share is the melodic quality that seems so naturally innate to Italian musicians and so elusive when it comes to improvised music. Lyrical yet adventorous.

As always, the perception, the interpretation of the strories told is completely personal and subjective. After all you can see or find in the picture only what you did know or did have in the first place. Like any good story, it only serves as a mirror, allowing you to reveal yourself. "Domino's Tales" opens you to immages, sceneries, melodies and thoughts that were always inside you. This music grows on you with each listen as it becomes your own immaginery.