Moba
Moba
GleAM, 2021

The new project led by Angelo Mastronardi is called Moba.

Moba is the name of the new group led by Angelo Mastronardi, who has just released the homonymous album for GleAM. The band features Mastronardi on Rhodes, piano and synth, Bombooze on synth and drum machine, Emanuele Coluccia on alto and tenor, Marco Gianfreda on trumpet, Paolo Colazzo on drums and Paolo Romano on electric bass.

The declared objective of the project is to seek a balance between the interplay of the acoustic trio piano and the tonal possibilities offered by electronic instruments and synthesizers, starting from Mastronardi’s compositions that are elaborated by the collective, mixing writing and improvisation.

The first point of interest in the album are the sounds: in particular the keyboards of Mastronardi, but in general all the instruments are enhanced by the beautiful recording. The music is structured with a notable use of pauses and silences. The technique is at the service of musical ideas, and virtuosity for its own sake is not part of the aesthetics of this group, as heard in the fascinating “Here And Now”.

“Gleam” is characterized by the pressing groove of the rhythm and the sinuous lines of the winds, with well-harmonized long notes. While “Beyond Sight” is a short song only for Mastronardi that introduces “From Z to A”, characterized by beautiful tempo changes. “No Walls” and “Know The Way” recall the best moments of English acid jazz with nice drum grooves in the foreground.

“Five Drops” is perhaps the most interesting track of the album with the interaction of bass and drums creating an iridescent rhythm on which the synth theme and the Rhodes solo by Mastronardi rest. “River” is a melancholic closing number featuring the sound of the piano in the foreground.

Moba is an ambitious and successful project. There is excellent synthesis between acoustic and electronic sound, and it has found the balance that its authors were looking for
(EM)