The world turns around without pause. In constant movement and change. The landscape and the living beings that inhabit it are never stationary, they constantly transform and move, they jump, run, hunt, eat, grow, get hurt, live, and die; nothing is permanent before our eyes. We ourselves, as we walk, feel that we join the rhythm of nature, and it is then that we perceive and conceive our thoughts and ideas more clearly. This is how the great writer Robert Walser understood it: “Walking is essential to cheer me up and to keep in touch with the living world, without whose sensations I could not write half a letter or produce the slightest poem in verse or prose” and this is how Jon Piris and Iñar Sastre have understood it in this stupendous “Pasieran” (for a walk). According to their own words, the album is an invitation to take a walk with them, walking a path in which the harmony of contemporary music and the rhythm of jazz come together, and which, in the future, they hope will become an open project where they can visit new soundscapes on each occasion.
And they have more than succeeded, “Pasieran” (walking) is all that and much more, once you get into the path and get into the groove, you open up your ears and discover the delightful subtlety of every detail. There is a lot of jazz and contemporary improvisation of course, but above it all, there is an evocative, melancholy, a silent film soundtrack or old puppet theater poignant air. As we walk along the promenade, the stories of its landscapes and characters accompany our stroll.
Recorded in 2022 by Juanan Ros at Jesus Guridi Conservatory in Gasteiz, “Pasieran” is made up of a handful of own compositions based on improvisations. Double bass and piano protagonists and leaders at all times, by the hand of Jon Piris and Iñar Sastre. No more is needed, when two masters like them dialogue in a sincere and free environment.
