Kosmos - Averno (2023)

Collective KÓSMOS (Sweden, Italy) comes back with a second release of all-original compositions.

Ilaria, Stefano and Giuseppe started playing together in their hometown of Naples almost a decade ago, before their respective careers took them on opposite sides of the continent. They share a common aesthetic in the music that is at the root of the trio’s distinctive sound.
Their upcoming album follows their 2019 debut ‘Back Home’, a series of reworkings of legendary pianist Lennie Tristano, released on popular Italian Jazz magazine Jazzit’s own record label. It was through the development of this music that the trio honed their ability to deconstruct musical forms, and build them back into what they describe as a “living organism”.

Named after a lake in Bacoli, Italy, which in ancient times was believed to be the entrance to the underworld and the reign of Hades, ‘Averno’ is a collection of original compositions united by their melancholic, contemplative, ECM-esque tone. Folk-tinged melodies, dark harmony and mesmeric passages of pulse-less texture provide the listener with hypnotic mental imagery of the album’s namesake.

Rooted equal parts in jazz tradition and European classical music, each member of the trio contributed to form this body of work.