Splash
Drift
Wayward Line
Interlude I (to dribble, to smear, to splash)
Free wheeler
Interlude II (to erase, to cover up, to utter, to race)
Streaming
a line with a mind of its own
Interlude III (to drip, to draw, to scribble, to scrawl)
Dry print for Twombly
Chalk

Myra Melford, piano
Michael Formanek, basse
Ches Smith, batterie, vibraphone

We are thrilled to release our first collaboration with vi-sionary pianist and composer Myra Melford – a mesmerizing debut album from the new trio featuring bassist Michael For-manek and drummer and vibraphonist Ches Smith. Through-out her career, Melford has incorporated elements from other media into her compositions – not only from the visual arts, but also from literature, poetry and architecture. This trio is the latest installment in Melford‘s ongoing body of work inspired by the art of American post-abstract expressionist painter Cy Twombly. Myra Melford‘s Splash mirrors the ener-gy and movement captured in Twombly‘s paintings, a phys-icality that drives Melford‘s exploratory music and multi-lay-ered compositions. “Formanek and Smith are alert listeners and adept shape-shifters, as they’ve proven time and time again. Together with Melford, unpacking this music, they’re able to evoke the gestural dynamism and surging volatility that gives Twombly’s work so much of its power. Their ex-pressive range of timbres — as Formanek plays arco, and Smith pivots to vibraphone — creates chamberlike options for Melford as a composer and improviser”, writes Nate Chin-en in the liner notes. The result is music of enchanting beau-ty, oscillating between filigree sound painting and abstract reflection