Bittolo Bon / Grillini – Spell/Hunger (Hora Records, 2025) ~ The Free Jazz Collective


By Guido Montegrandi

Spell/Hunger is a new chapter in Bittolo Bon’s (augmented sax, feedback and
electronics) search for a sound that develops and thrives at the
intersection between acoustic and electronic sources. This time, he plays in
duo with Andrea Grillini on drums, percussion and electronics; a musician
with whom he shares a long history of collaborations (Bread&Fox,
Youruba, Rex Kramer Trio, Tower Jazz Composer Orchestra).

On the album, the sound of the acoustic instruments is often augmented with
electronic effects but most of all the electronics provide a grounding, a sort
of basso continuo that allows the two musicians to move freely. The final result
possesses a hypnotic quality that sets the listener into a pervasive
fascinating sonic environment.

The first track ‘Spell/Hunger #1 – pangolin summoner’ unrolls on a
repeated reed pattern with the percussion that develops around it with a
sparse quality. The global sound never escalates with the two musicians
defining a sonic horizon based on subtle nuances and evolving rhythmic
patterns.

This is a feature that characterizes almost every track and even when the
sound gets thicker as in Sports’ or ‘Ongok Sunside’, Bittolo
Bon and Grillini create dense and obsessive forms that never give to a
liberating yelling and thumping.

The thing that the augmented sounds seem to add to the mix is a sense of
inescapable anxiety, a kind of restless hungry feeling (to quote Mr Dylan).
Bite the Beaver’ for example displays a heavy drum pattern
augmented with electronics that is then topped by a distant dissonant reed;
in about three minutes everything dissolves into a crackling whistle.

All of this work carries the listener on the verge of something, every
sound could develop in every direction but then every sound is left somehow
suspended…an unsettling but thought provoking sensation. Absolutely worth
listening.

Spell/Hunger is released by Hora Records.





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