Tales from the Subterranean

01 - Time Riding

02 - Giovanni’s Friend

03 - Footworks

04 - Westward at Sundown

05 - Transcending

06 - Lilith’s Tune

07 - Long and Short

08 - The Twins

09 - Whirling

10 - Minor Thoughts

11 - Grace

12 - Hailing from the Mountains

In the 2009 documentary “Villalobos”, the Chilean DJ describes the primal reaction from his audience when he sounds a siren during his sets. People go wild in an instant, but it happens with mixed feelings. Their rational side alerts them to the warning characteristics of the sound, makes them think why they are listening to it there; on the other hand, the body keeps moving, more frenetically, more euphoric. Julius Gabriel achieves the same kind of feeling with the song “Footworks” by mixing the rhythm of the sound of his fingers on the saxophone with a continuous siren whisper coming out of the instrument. The big difference is that the musician didn’t achieve this with an audience, he discovered this sound and what it evokes, how we react, in the solitude of his apartment during the pandemic.

Yes, the pandemic. You’ve heard this story many times now but not like this. During the pandemic, while exercising his fingers on the saxophone in a very acoustically sensitive environment, Julius Gabriel discovered the nods of repetition of that sound and how it created patterns and rhythms that could be explored. He started by amplifying them, making them more audible and trying to understand how he could capture them and, eventually, create upon that idea.

That is the base for his fifth solo album “Tales From The Subterranean”. It is his first solo album in four years, the one that was created during the pandemic but it doesn’t sound like the pandemic. It is restrained but adventurous, repetitive but full of ideas that bring optimism with a complementary touch of joy.

But it doesn’t stop there. In this creative storm, Julius was relentless in finding new sounds, ways to achieve it and passionate about finding a natural sound. It wasn’t just about amplifying those sounds, he also wanted to get more from his soprano saxophone. In a continuous DIY process, he built a twin mouthpiece to achieve a natural drone in his instrument that he uses in two of the twelve pieces.

He recorded them all in 2023 with Rabih Beaini at Morphine Raum in Berlin. It took time to master these ideas and record them in one-take, without any overdubs. The saxophonist creates different combinations of rhythms and ambiences using, mainly, the amplified sound of the movement of his fingers but also the saxophone. Tracks like “The Twins” or “Hailing From The Mountains” infuse a more meditative tone and a welcome contrast to the frenetic pace of most of the tracks. Specially, “Hailing From The Mountains”, the last track and a beautiful closure to “Tales From The Subterranean”, with John Coltrane ghost appearing here and there.

There is a wholesome feeling when everything is happening at the same time. Julius lays layer upon layer in real time and makes everything work as a contemporary jazz piece and not as mere exercise. Tracks like the abovementioned “Footworks”, the opening “Time Riding” or “Long And Short” and “Whirling” are good examples of that achievement. On some of the tracks he tries non-binary rhythms and the result is frantic and beautiful.

This results in very physical music, often imposed by the rhythm that the musician dictates, but mostly by the perception of the listener, how he reacts and perceives the sounds and deals with compulsive repetition.

It is primal music. Julius Gabriel was inspired by the work of percussionists Mohammad Reza Mortazavi and João Pais Filipe (the other half of Paisiel) to find the joy in the frenzy of these kinds of rhythms. His fingers are relentless, even when he is just tip toeing over other rhythms at a different pace. A joint force between German label Ana Ott and Portuguese label Lovers & Lollipops, “Tales From the Subterranean” is energized and energizing.

(André Santos)