2. The Scribe (Tratado de Mpegó) 07:34
3. Biankoméko 04:55
4. Antillais (A Quintín Bandera) 07:08
5. Aberiñán y Aberisún 04:24
6. Seven, Through The Divination Horn 04:49
7. Stories Waiting To Be Told 08:20
8. Transmission 08:30
9. The Highest One 06:14
10. Èfé (A María Teresa Vera) 00:38
Mbókó
With Mbókò, pianist-composer David Virelles – based now in New York but born and bred in Cuba – has taken the folkloric rhythms of Afro-Cuban religious ritual and transmuted them into a 21st-century music resonating with mystery and meaning. The main title, Mbókò, can mean “The Voice,” not the human voice but The Voice that is believed in Carabalí culture to be the voice of a spirit, or spirits. The album’s subtitle – “Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set and Biankoméko Abakuá” – indicates both the ritualistic intent of the 10 pieces and their sound, with piano as lead voice alongside dual bass drone and the polyrhythmic percussion of a traditional trap set and the all-important four-drum biankoméko kit, manned by Román Diaz. Virelles has tapped into a musical impulse that is simultaneously ancient and modern, communal and personal, meditative and propulsive. Mbókò casts a spell.
released October 10, 2014
ECM Records
David Virelles: piano
Thomas Morgan: double bass
Robert Hurst: double bass
Marcus Gilmore: drums
Román Díaz: biankoméko, vocals
Recorded December 2013, Avatar Studios, New York