Carla Santana, José Lencastre, Maria Do — Defiant Illusion

Defiant Ilussion is an eight-track journey into taut, brooding, at times moodily atmospheric, at others noisily seared electro-acoustic improv. The four-way collaboration features players from the Portuguese scene, and it most certainly highlights the skill and scope within the secene.

This is a CD album released by Belgium’s A New Wave Of Jazz- which focuses on releasing the more free/ experimental side of improv & Jazz. The CD is presented in the label's house-style grey mini gatefold- which on its front and back takes in grey boxes set with white texts. Inside we find a two-page write-up about the album & its players.

Featured here are Carla Santanna- electronics. José Lencastre - alto and tenor sax Maria do Mar – violin, and Gonçalo Almeida - double bass. The album was recorded in the studio in October of 2022- though it all sounds very off the cuff/ live in its sound.

The eight tracks that make up the album have runtimes between two and thirteen minutes. We move from the open title track, which is sinister & lightly seared mixture of  taut brooding bass scrapes/ purrs, forlorn horn wails, manic string fiddles, and uneasy elector sweeps ‘n’ pulls. There’s the warbling electro haze fade in of “Each One Without Exception” which pulls together a selection of creaks 'n' scrabs with slowly pitch swoons, and the latter angular jaunting seesawing tones

Moving into the second half we have “Side To Side” with it’s bounding bass fiddle, sour watery electro churn,  seesawing annularity, and general dense ‘n’ discordently  bounding chaos. We have the constant grain static shift, wailing horn flirt, and shifting  bass runs of “Untapped Storytellers”.

Throughout Defiant Ilussion there is a keen sense of tensioned edge, surprised, with fleeting  moments of more seared noise and even the occasional wayward melody. All making for a highly engaging trip into electro acoustic improv. Drop by here to score a copy- though I’d advising acting fairly soon, as these are Ltd to just 200 copies