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Claudio Scolari Project — Bloom
(Bandcamp no#, 2025, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-12-02

Bloom Cover art

We’ve been reviewing the work of the Claudio Scolari project for some time now, since the 2019 album Upside Down, and all the while this has been a quartet of Claudio Scolari (drum set 1, synth programming), Daniele Cavalca (drum set 2, live synths, Rhodes, piano), trumpeter Simone Scolari, and bassist Michele Cavalca. Now, with their latest album Bloom, they have added a new member: Ilaria Cavalca (keeping it in the family) on piano and mostly wordless voice, a change which, at first is not overtly noticeable — after all they had a piano in the lineup before — until the vocals come in, which offsets the omnipresent trumpet in the overall fabric of their jazz-meets-early fusion sound. The album’s nine tracks were all composed by Claudio Scolari and Daniele Cavalca. Their sound continues to be intense, explorative, spontaneous, and with plenty of room for improvisation. There are few wasted moments anywhere, with bass and one drummer or the other (or sometimes even both) supporting lively progressions with an abundance of keyboards and on top of it all, and Scolari’s trumpet cuts through everything. Ilaria makes her first vocal appearance on the second track, “Velvet Currents,” although it’s a very minor part; she really jumps to the fore on the third cut “Unfolded Silence,” with what seems like spoken improvised scatting over explosive rhythms and piano. On “Twilight Serenade” her voice blends expressively with the dominant piano and muted trumpet, while the rhythm section swells and ebbs, while on the closer “Whispers of Life” the entire group mixes it up over a sequenced electronic pattern, the vocals and trumpet taking turns in the foreground. There are plenty of other worthwhile cuts here, like the mysterious “Floating in the Dark,” the title track with its ongoing prominent cadence, and the short but chaotic improv “Acid Roots.” Overall it’s good to hear the group back in action and making headway in some new directions.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Claudio Scolari (Project)

More info
http://claudioscolariproject.bandcamp.com/album/bloom

 

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