Mantis - A Postcard from Nowhere (2021)

A record that combines tradition and innovation and that transports the listener to the discovery of new soundscapes. This is how A Postcard From Nowhere, the Mantis quartet's debut album, released on April 22 for the Emme Record Label, presents itself. The band was born in 2018 and is made up of young musicians from the Marche who met during the summer seminars of "Arcevia Jazz Feast". The line-up, therefore, is composed of Marta Giulioni (voice); Thomas Lasca (electric guitar and loop); Edoardo Petracci (double bass and electric bass) and Andrea Elisei (drums) with special participation in some compositions by the saxophonist Simone La Maida. The disc collects the different influences of each component giving life to a common language that has declined right away in the writing of original songs. In it coexist different souls ranging from modern music, Latin jazz and even free jazz, without ever neglecting an innate melodic sense that is always one of the main characteristics of the project. In the band's compositions, writing and improvisation coexist and feed a constant dialogue between tradition and innovation not only from the point of view of compositional choices but also and above all in sound. The tracklist consists of six original compositions, the arrangement, by drummer Andrea Elisei, of the famous standard In Spring You Must Believe by Michel Legrand and an introductory track to the last piece interpreted by Edoardo Petracci's double bass soloist.
The album opens with the title track A Postcard From Nowhere, composed by guitarist T. Lasca. The song begins with a marked groove riff on which the voice, sax and guitar describe a lyrical melody. Decisive is the artistic contribution of the alto sax by Simone La Maida, who gives a splendid solo perfectly consistent with the mood of the song. With Hearing A Whistle (T. Lasca) the quartet explores a world of sound made of whispers with great attention to dynamics and expressiveness. The theme of the piece is initially exposed by the guitar and whispered by the voice, while in the central part there is a double bass solo perfectly inserted in the context. Colibrì, by Marta Giulioni, is the watershed of the disc: the theme, consisting of an articulated melody performed at high speed, is interpreted by the voice and the soprano sax while the rhythm section ensures a cohesive rhythmic bearing. A song in which the band, thanks to its innate cohesion, approaches a more Latin-like atmosphere. In Spring You Must Believe (arr. A. Elisei) it represents a unique episode within the album because initially the quartet explores the terrain of free and then pays a real tribute to Legrand's music. The album ends with Hiya, a very sweet composition written by Andrea Alisei whose title is an Arabic word meaning "You". The melody at the beginning is exposed in unison by the voice and the sax and during the performance the solo interventions come to life through which the expressive apex of the piece is reached. The theme, taken up in the finale, leads to a coda that surprises the listener with a completely different mood.