Odyssey Mixtape

There is extraordinarily little, by way of anticipation, that can prepare one for the ferocious energy of Odyssey Mixtape from the pianist and composer José Luiz Martins. The music detonates with the intensity of several suns exploding right out of the gate. The ferocity of the music owes much to the artist's experience with focal dystonia, a potentially career-ending condition.

Faced with such a neurological movement disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that cause repetitive or sustained twisting and abnormal postures in a specific part of his body Mr. Martins must certainly have been devastated. As if looking into a shattered mirror Mr. Martins seems to have had a fierce reflection of himself stare him in the face - such as the prospect of losing control of his neck, eyelids, jaw, and/or hands. Thus, the prospect of losing his ability to write and play music.

That is the incandescent backdrop against which the pianist conceived the music that describes his odyssey out of this condition. The music is angular. Songs shoot out with the serrated edge of their melodic lines. Pliant vocals on "Bloom," "Metamorphosis" and "Tierra Extraña" are marked by the existential wail of Alex Hamburger's elementally sad voice. "Bloom" evokes the dying petals of a flower, "Metamorphosis," a far-from-happy transformation, and the latter song the naked fear [of the unknown].

These narratives bite, especially venomously, close to home for the pianist and composer, the vocalist who vocalises the lyrics with body and soul and the very air that she [Ms Hamburger] appears to breathe. Ms Hamburger's singings is not the only special vocalastics on the recording. Nakama's breathy vocal sojourn on "Don't Act Like" is just as special.

This also prompts an interiorization of this music by all the performers [screaming guitar of John Lee, rolling thunder of bass and drums of Romeir Mendez and Dana Hawkins, as well as of Tyrone Allen II and Florian Haas] who give of themselves with idiomatic interpretations that are likely to stun the listeners as they too are made to feel the pianist and composer's existential pain.

As the recording begins- with "Incerteza," the 'state or character of what is uncertain' - could never been more evocative of the stormy music that continues throughout. The only ray of light appears to come when the musicians perform Bituca's celebrated "Cravo e Canela." But even here the stirring in of a sort of Brasilian spice into the music is done with Mr Martin's special artistic agitation. Certainly, a quite flawless recording from a young musician to watch for. May his memorable voyage through a life well lived continue unabated...