Diederik Wissels & Ana Rocha - Yearn (2023) Hi Res

After ‘Secrecy’ (2020), the German-Portuguese singer Ana Rocha and the pianist and composer Diederik Wissels join forces again in this second album, a meeting between saturnine piano and celestial voice. The keywords: symbiosis, sensibility and lyricism.

Ana writes texts that she sings to the music of pianist Diederik Wissels (David Linx, Fay Claassen, Philip Catherine , Chet Baker, Toots Thielemans…). The syllables are detached, the voice is clear and its accuracy infallible. The words fall like scattered flakes, composing sentences with a diffuse melancholy and, ultimately, small allusive parables as fragile as glass dreams. She sings of absence, of chimeras, of aspirations and transcendence towards more love, peace and beauty: “Life is an ephemeral state. And a narrow door, which leads to a small garden where flowers bloom that may well be all the hope we have left.”
There is no rhythm section in this music, which wraps itself around the words more than it carries them. The association of timbres are remarkable and, as is often the case with Diederik, silence is everywhere, bringing to life the slightest inflection of sound. Perfectly adapted to the translucent world of the singer, the pianist’s touch is extremely delicate, all finesse and lightness.

But ‘Yearn’ also benefits from the presence of two other musicians: the Greek-born trumpeter Andreas Polyzogopoulos and the tenor saxophonist Nicolas Kummert, who enrich the harmonies, where appropriate, with all the necessary softness and discretion. Their remarkable appearances when least expected contribute to the drama of these miniatures by triggering new emotions and enchantments.