Juli Deák: Brisk
The body’s nervous system handles inhalation and exhalation without any need for conscious thought. However, it’s possible to override that automated process to support singing, playing a flute – or both at the same time. Polish-Hungarian flautist Juli Deák embraces those respiratory options to generate a hypnotic atmosphere on this debut solo release.
That mesmerising mood is amplified by the reverberant interior of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Budapest, where the album was recorded via two sessions. Everything was captured in a single take, with no overdubbing. All seven tracks were composed and played by Deák. It’s a staggering technical achievement and a richly emotional listening experience.
The album begins with its title track, which typifies the depth and variety of sounds that shape the entire record. Percussive clicking and fluttery long tones swell, subside and expand. Deák then sings through the flute, simultaneously playing low- and high-pitch patterns above a buzzing undercurrent. It’s benevolent, hand-on-the-shoulder music.
Trace is built around a two-note oscillation. A far-off yawning sound rises and falls and rises again before Deák adds an angel-sigh vocal line. Tamed starts out with a similar flickering siren call that stays present throughout while other layers shift as if catching light that sneaks between the leaves of an overhead tree.
A spiralling arpeggio-adjacent shape is at the core of Depict. It’s a tactile piece with more momentum, where the flute’s familiar voicings stay in focus above an ever-evolving cloud of clunking keys and fizzy, fuzzy-edged overblowing.
Circular breathing and interhelixed melodic lines make Brisk a dizzying album. However, it is grounded by an unprocessed physicality and an emotional openness that will resonate broadly. Juli Deák’s mastery of her instrument will capture listeners’ imaginations. But her candid approach to writing and performing will keep them coming back to this respiration-focused record.
Discography
Brisk; Depict; Steam; Trace; Contact; Float; Tamed (39.09)
Deák (f). Budapest, Hungary, April 2025 to January 2026.
Thanatosis Produktion THT51
Andrea Motis: Intimate
Looking for something different – but not sure what? Perhaps this album by Barcelona-born Andrea Motis can help freshen things up. Recorded at three locations, the 17-track release encompasses folk songs, pop tunes, bossa nova and chanson. Motis plays trumpet and sings in Catalan, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. Listen closely or play it in the background. It’s sumptuous.
Motis puts her vocals at the heart of almost every track, seldom taking her brass instrument out of its case. The trumpet has defined most of the 31-year-old’s career ever since her first recording at the age of just 15 back in 2010, when she featured on an album by multi-instrumentalist Joan Chamorro. She welcomes two guitarists and a guest cellist for this wide-ranging and graceful work.
The Amy Winehouse tune, You Sent Me Flying, opens the record. Motis has a low-pressure voice that flows unhurriedly, with crumbling edges on notes at the upper and lower ends of her register. The cried-out quality of her vocals allows her to tell the song’s broken-hearted story with shy authority.
Flor De Lis is another borrowed composition, penned by acclaimed Brazilian singer-songwriter Djavan. It includes one of the album’s longest trumpet solos, where Motis twists bebop-infused lines around the bouncy two-guitar rhythm. Her instrument and vocals share a hushed and loose-lipped character.
Several tracks have the air of a stripped-back lullaby. Senhorinha is a spacious arrangement with soft-plucked strings and sunset-sky singing. Complicidad is a dreamy number propelled by bubbling guitar lines. And there’s cheekiness to Mi Lecho Esta Tendido, with Motis singing in a conspiratorial whisper.
This is a varied and multifaceted album that offers material to suit every taste. By casting her net wide on Intimate, Andrea Motis demonstrates the remarkable breadth and scope of her musical gifts. If you’re looking for something different, give this generous and wide-ranging record a chance.
Discography
You Sent Me Flying; Beatriz; Freight Train; Mi Lecho Está Tendido; O Meu Amor; Preconceito; Je Me Suis Fait Tout Petit; De Mica En Mica; Flor De Lis; Little Blue; Tan Tranquil·la; Retrato Em Branco E Preto; Senhorinha; Ain’t No Sunshine; Tudo É Ilusão; Complicidad; To Know Him Is To Love Him (65.44)
Motis (v, t); Jurandir Da Silva (g); Josep Traver (g); Jaques Morelenbaum (clo). Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Montoliu de Segarra, 2025.
Elemental Music 5990463
Mark Turner: Patternmaster
Psycho-spirituality is the muse for this release by tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. The album’s title references the name of a character in Octavia E. Butler’s Patternist series of science-fiction novels, who rules a community of hyperintelligent and telepathic humans that functions as a hive mind. It’s a neat fit for the tight-knit interplay among this high-skilled quartet.
The group features trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Jonathan Pinson. That’s the same lineup that appeared on Return From The Stars (ECM, 2022), which took its name from a sci-fi novel by Polish author Stanisław Lem. They create impelling and insistent music that mixes bebop and post-bop with contemporary harmonic ideas, as well as elements from swing and blues.
That intensity is present from the start of the album, where saxophone and trumpet deliver a squirming and pirouetting melodic line for the off-kilter title track. The two instruments enunciate together but slightly apart to give the written material a smudged quality. It Very Well May Be is a similarly high-energy piece with a chirpier character. Turner offers a garrulous solo packed with vocabulary that reflects the breadth of his musical influences and experiences.
Things move more slowly on Trece Ocho, which opens with a hesitant 90-second passage of bass. A long-tone phrase leads to a drop-off in volume, before the group lifts the pace to scurry up and down hectic sonic staircases. The gentle mood lasts for the entire track on The Happiest Man On Earth. It’s a loping, moping tune in 6/8 that reaches a dreamy closing moment.
Listeners get invited to feel the vibrations, perceive the non-verbal communications and admire the collective inspiration of Mark Turner’s revered quartet on Patternmaster. Amid a constant buzz of activity, the group’s hive mind generates nourishing output – with a powerful sting in its tail.
Discography
Patternmaster; Trece Ocho; It Very Well May Be; Lehman’s Lair; The Happiest Man On Earth; Supersister (48.23)
Turner (ts); Jason Palmer (t); Joe Martin (b); Jonathan Pinson (d). Pernes-les-Fontaines, France, April 2024.
ECM Records 2835
