Mediterraneo
Falling and rising in equidistant phrasing can be seen as one of the cultivations of mediterranean life. The lifestyle is slower, while people do more manual work to get a job ironed. The food is healthier, whereas the feed is richer. The basic architecture stands further apart with the climate eroding the pieces of history. When all this comes together, it forms a solid building block of fortuitous intent in either falling back on a task, or rising to the occasion.
Rising to the occasion is something Bruno Bavota certainly does on his most completely realised collection of piano, string and guitar tracks to date, ‘Mediterraneo’. With a generally slow pace being bassily backed up by reverb-heavy piano phrasing, there is no instruction manual required to go from a to b, it floats together seamlessly. Likewise, the shanty pull of “a quiet place” multitracks guitar and piano so they interweave a satisfying cluster ideology, mirroring the primitivism and placenta-gorged platitudes of early composition standards and taking them into a modern classical ballroom.
This feel for remembrance and romanticism correlates accurately with Naples, Italy, Bavota’s city of residence. Seen as a european boon to many, picturesque and pure, the resonance for this acquiescence translates to the sounds Bruno sculpts on these recordings. The partially electronic “Sweet Fall” remains a real flourishing violet enigma of a track, bending its rhythmical base so it transposes pitch into constant, bobbing timbral epoch. “Passport to the Moon” after this checks in a moment of reflection where the essentials of relaxation and release lie, Bavota scanning his notes to the letter and latter “Fairy Tale” outro as if he’s about to disappear into the further reaches of space. Nothing feels forced, one movement contributes to waves of resolution in the heart of the listener, and the heat of the moment. In culmination, it all means ‘Mediterraneo’ is realised as a fundamental step up the ladder for Bavota, with hopeful concerts rich with surprises across the world at large.