Leo Genovese - Eyes to the sun (2024) [Hi-Res]

With each new album, the only thing that matters is what you hear. What came before or after the recording is, at best, secondary. Usually. Because there are those albums that came to be on such a thin red line between the „before“ and the „after“, that after the recording nothing was as it had been for those involved. „Eyes To The Sun“, a meeting of the Argentinians Camila Nebbia on saxophone and Leo Genovese on piano with the Austrian drummer Alfred Vogel, is such a record.

But let’s start at the beginning. On „Eyes To The Sun“ three highly different characters immediately find those intersections that make even the effort of finding a definition for a lowest common denominator obsolete; new constellations emerge constantly in this troika. Alfred Vogel already played with Camila Nebbia once before in Berlin and immediately noticed the potential for more musical endeavors. Further shows followed until they both decided it was time to share their experience with Argentina. Another companion was soon found in the pianist Leo Genovese who with Alfred considers themselves as "cosmic brothers". The renowned musician, among many others a collaborator of Wayne Shorter, Joe Lovano or Jack DeJohnette, was at first too busy to make the planned recording date, but all of a sudden there was an opening in the schedule and he joined the other two as fast as he could. Without any rehearsing or discussing beforehand a studio was booked and for one day they recorded.

The thing with free improvisation is that very often it just goes off into some kind of Nirvana and can be somewhat tiring. But Nebbia, Genovese and Vogel manage in an astounding manner to excavate proper song structures from their river of unlimited imagination. They evoke pictures in your mind like being on a raft meandering down a natural river and then all of a sudden there might a magnificent castle in front of your eyes. The recipe for this - according to Alfred Vogel - is hidden in the love and respect the three musicians share for each other: „We just feel good in each other’s presence, both musically and on a more personal level. From this connection something emerges for which there are no words. So we have to express it through music.“

This brings us to the „after“. Three weeks after recording „Eyes To The Sun“ - the album title did not yet exist back then - Alfred Vogel was diagnosed with cancer, completely out of the blue. He had to start treatment immediately and spent the following months going through hell. When he finally left the hospital with a positive outlook and realized that there would be another „after“ for him in this world, his view on it had completely changed. Everything that had happened in his life up until that special day in Buenos Aires seemed in a different light. He had always lived with purpose and clarity but never before had he felt how precious each and every moment could be. There are no important or unimportant events in life, every second that we are allowed to spend on this planet, counts.

The title „Eyes To The Sun“ was not chosen at random, but instead pays tribute to that realization. How much Alfred Vogel’s subconscious was already reacting to the illness spreading in his body while he was recording will remain speculation, of course. But there is still something dividing this „before“ from the „after“ while listening to the album.

„Eyes To The Sun“ is a moment, where time stops in order to revalue all values. An album to wait for a bit, reflect, get in touch with yourself and look into another person’s eyes - no matter if they are standing right in front of you or not. It is music that is more than just sound. Not a detached kind of music but music about life itself.

Tracklist:
1 Shadow
2 Glint
3 Glow
4 Radiance