Recommended: Javier Subatin – “autotelic”

Even when it goes wandering far and wide, the music of autotelic possesses a directness that brings the journey right to the listener rather than insisting on a chase to go after it.  Opening track “#6” gets right to the heart of this quality with its jaunty cadence and a melodic development that behaves like a hiking trail shaped by frequent spurs and cutbacks.  It’s a quality that holds steady even on pieces like “#5” where the melody is more a concept that’s carried away by a swirling autumn breeze.  The immediacy of the music keeps things focused and coherent.  This effect gets ramped up even higher when guests sit in with the duo.  This is especially true when one (or more) slip into a rhythmic frame of mind, giving greater definition to motion that already is pretty clearly spelled out.

Javier Subatin went into this project with the idea of exploring a duo setting with piano.  The guitarist chose João Paulo Esteves da Silva as his sounding board.  The result of their collaboration opened things up to where other musicians were asked to contribute.  The organic development of this project bleeds from the album’s eight tracks, and attaining a sense of things shaking out as if in real time is one of the recording’s most appealing characteristics.

Your album personnel:  Javier Subatin (guitar), João Paulo Esteves da Silva (piano), and guests: Desidério Lázaro (tenor sax), André Rosinha (double bass) and Diogo Alexandre (drums).

Released on Sintoma Records.

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Music from Lisbon, Portugal.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon