CD ECM Records Stefano Battaglia Trio: The River Of Anyder

2011

Stefano Battaglia - pian
Salvatore Maiore - contrabas
Roberto Dani - tobe

The pure water of the Anyder River flowered through Sir Thomas Moore’s “Utopia”. Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia celebrates it and other mythical and legendary locations in a trio recording of new compositions which spurn self-conscious modernity: “I pushed myself to write songs and dances uninfluenced by the sophistication of contemporary musical languages, striving to shape pieces that might have been played on archaic instruments a thousand years ago.” If the piano trio is itself a modern institution and the group understanding that Battaglia, Maioere and Dani share cannot help but be of-the-moment, Battaglia has nonetheless made an album that feels “timeless”.

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Battaglia hasn't left his conceptual focus behind, either, “The River of Anyder“ referencing Sir Thomas More's classic “Utopia“ (1516), through which the titular river runs. But if Battaglia's inspiration is centuries old, his music is timeless. There's something about the album's delicate yet relentless lyricism that harkens back to ECM's emergence in the 1970s, when pianists such as Keith Jarrett, Art Lande and Bobo Stenson were pushing forward with free-spirited melodism predicated on unfettered communication. […] In the case of Battaglia and his trio it's a controlled freedom, where the music is never restrained, yet never approaches full boil. But it's that very quality – a pervasive tension amidst its gentle, sometimes pastoral playing and countless haunting melodies – that makes this one of the year's most beautiful piano recordings. An undercurrent of gentle push-and-pull, flowing beneath its seemingly endless wellspring of haunting melodism, gives „The River of Anyder“ its depth and weight, even as its diaphanous interaction suggests an evolving language from Battaglia and his elegantly empathic trio.
John Kelman, All About Jazz

This is music that has a precise focus and within the organic flow of ideas it makes its point through unanimity of expression. Quietly probing, there is unexpected depth here that conceals a darkness at the heart of the music. This is easily Battaglia’s best album to date, yet there is such depth here you suspect there is so much more to come.
Start Nicholson, Jazzwise

A direct and accessible statement brimming with musical riches, „The River of Anyder“ rests on an entirely different plane to Battaglia’s earlier, riskier ECM output. In using this most classic of instrumental formats, he has created a brilliant benchmark that should catapult his career onwards and upwards.
Fred Grand, Jazz Journal

„Warm, vigorous and accessible, it´s a music that feels both firmly contemporary and resolutely independent of it.“
Ray Comiskey, Properganda

An exquisite album by a trio led by italian classical/jazz pianist Stefano Battaglia. On the album the compositions certainly have a communal feel with drums, bass and piano all working together to propel some thoroughly beautiful music. […] Highly recommended.
Matt Hill. The Northern Rivers Echo