Gonçalo Almeida - Improvisations on Amplified and Prepared Double Bass

In the present album, Gonçalo Almeida questions the future of the double bass and of music in general, inventing a sound that has not yet been heard. Like many important discoveries, his invention required more imagination than equipment: « my setup is simple », he says, « just an amp and a volume pedal». Listening to the seven tracks of this album, one also imagines a subtle interaction between the amp and the bass: slight movements that change the position and distance of the resonator (the body of the bass) from the speaker to create controlled feedback. We also imagine something like a gymnopédie with the volume pedal, to modulate a distortion that enhances the bowing stroke, the pizzicato resonance and several mysterious preparations.

The improviser has the advantage over the traditional composer of hearing in great detail the specificity of the sound he invents. This live listening pushes him to other lines that he would not have imagined in the silence of a working room. Obviously, the new sound of the double bass discovered by Gonçalo Almeida has directed his music towards unexplored paths.The trio of timbres born from the combination of feedback, distortion and acoustics led him to lines and energies that he had not yet developed in his previous albums. Clearly, the music on this album is something else. Pierre Bastien