REVELATION by Agustí Fernández & Yasmine Azaiez

Free Music demands invention. It is not enough to rely on one’s repertoire or default techniques. Every performance is a confrontation with the undiscovered. Each player expects the challenge to change with every portion of sound or silence. The formulation of a musical duration demands complete attention by each player, who is obligated to interpret and determine the questions and answers with immediate action. Focus with one’s artistry, and facility with ones instrument, must combine with an agreement that everything is mutable and therefore unknown until it is heard. Agustí Fernández, a master of improvisation on piano, and Yasmine Azaiez, a virtuoso violinist still in her mid 20s, are two of the most daring musicians I know, virtuosos of the highest order, each comfortable in any musical situation. Both are vital, passionate artists who search for new material and areas of expression. As a friend and colleague to both of them, I am not surprised that on this recording they completely embrace the need for invention, and in the process, change the way a piano and violin sound together—no small feat considering the history of this instrumentation. We hear massive arcs and varied densities made of the smallest particles of sound, all movable, constantly evolving, implying a narrative and also the elemental, organic configuration where sound needs no more interpretive definition. Our opportunity as listeners is to decipher our own understanding of what this music means to us, how it formulates itself in our experience with it. Agustí Fernández and Yasmine Azaiez have done their jobs on this recording with grace and daring. They’ve made an exciting experience for us to examine—one where we can discover ourselves through the surprise of newly invented music. —Joe Morris

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