For those unaware, rekindling the familiarly flowing interplay with fellow travelers Thomas Morgan and João Lobo – the trio’s musical partnership goes back over a decade at this point – on A New Day Italian pianist Giovanni Guidi moreover expands the group’s instrumental grasp with the introduction of American saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, who makes his ECM debut here.

Not only is the ensemble scope widened; with Brandon Lewis in tow, new dialects and fresh perspectives are broached, and different instrumental paths taken, inspired by an overall heightened sense of communication and Lewis’s unmistakable, confident tone.

Recorded at Studios La Buissonne, Southern France, in August 2023, the album was produced by Manfred Eicher.

1. Cantos Del Ocells
2. To A Young Student
3. Means For A Rescue
4. Only Sometimes
5. Luigi (The Boy Who Lost His Name)
6. My Funny Valentine
7. Wonderland

This beautifully sculpted new recording opens on the delicately-hued Cantos Del Ocells and then we get the aching, pensive yearn found within To A Young Student and my own personal favorite, the flirtatiously emboldened Means For A Rescue.

Along next is the quietly furtive Only Sometimes which is itself backed seamlessly by the veritably cinematic Luigi (The Boy Who Lost His Name), the recording rounding out on the gently rhythmic My Funny Valentine, closing on the all-embracing nature of beauty that thrives within Wonderland.

Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri bring the music of Transylvanian Dance on the road in the months ahead, with concerts on both sides of the Atlantic.

www.giovanniguidi.it