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                  tracks/ The Metal Flower Asterion étude for asterion Isobel Ra Clock Produced by Sei Miguel More excellent stuff by Miguel. In this exciting release, Sei prefers avoiding the muted trumpet for most of the record's duration, instead opting for a clear, open tone that duets with a lot of perfectly matching voices, such as in the wonderful second track where clay drums, organ and trombone give life to a magic mixture, taking a dose of Jon Hassell's exotic twists and launching them in a nightmare made of oblique views and nocturnal noises. I also appreciated the melancholic piano piece coming right after, sort of a distant sigh by a forgotten soul. Miguel and his colleagues - among them an excellent female bass player named Margarida Garcia and a great trombone player, Fala Mariam  - once again captured my attention, never exagerating, just sligthly opening a little window over themselves. Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, 2003   Sei Miguel returns with a new release on the Lisbon based Headlights label, after last year's Still Alive in Bairro Alto, a playful yet attractive mock-improvisation for a small ensemble of experimental jazz players (see or review in Issue 053). Miguel performs mostly on trumpet, with a diversion on piano for the solo piece "Étude for Asterion." He is accompanied by a number of players, many of whom also joined him on his last record, appearing in different combinations on the five pieces documented here, ranging in length from 35 seconds to 20 minutes: César Burago and Monsieur Trinité on percussions, Paulinho Russolo on Hammond organ, Fala Mariam on trombone, Manuel Mota on guitar and Margarida Garcia on electric doublebass. Three shorter pieces, one of which is a recording of voices and what is credited as being a "water deity," accompany two longer ones, the central pieces here. "Asterion," with its African clay drum, played like random drops of water landing in a shallow puddle, its sombre trumpet and trombone, struggling with inexplicable yet muted tension, is accompanied all the while by a Hammond organ, droning quietly in long tones beneath the surface, adding a beautiful, mysterious sheen to the piece. The title piece is the more unsettling of the two, with an uneasy air prevailing on the sharp pronunciations of trumpet, while Mota's guitar adds the twist of a 3-sided wah pedal, the wind gong and odd metallic percussions shuffle and resound uneasily but with noticeable restraint and the bass tiptoes around corners... Sei Miguel achieves a wonderful energy and an ambiguous yet unmistakable mood with these pieces, filled with shadows and shifting spaces, a place of mystery where a whisper and a scream come together and the silence is as still as the very clock on the wall. Richard di Santo, Incursion, 2003 Sei Miguel spielt Trompete und wohnt in Lissabon. Wie Manuel Mota (Guitarist und Produzent dieser beiden Alben) wahrend seines Interviews erzahlte, ist Jazz fur Miguel eine "transidiomatische Musik in kosmischer Mission, deren relativ mysteriose Ursprunge in der Exposion verschiedener traditioneller Musiken liegen, die deportiert und spater von Blues magnetisiert wurden".Der Begriff Jazz bringt die Musik auf diesen beiden CDs auch auf den Punkt, selbst, wenn er nicht mehr mit dem ubereinstimmt, was er fur die Jazzmagazine ublicherweise ausmacht. "Still Alive" ist eine durchgehende Live-Improvisation, eingespielt von einem Septett (zwei Horner, zwei Gitarren, zweimal Percussion und ein zweisaitiger Bass). Dabei mochte ich behaupten, das es nicht nur ein Stuck, sondern gar nur eine Bewegung ist, ein 41 minutiges musicalisches Suchen, dabei erstaunlicht detail- und formenreich. Alle Mitwirkenden interagieren hier sehr rege, wabei den Improvisationen Momente der Stille folgen- immer mit hochster Konzentration. Ich weiB nicht warum, aber ich muss an Katzenmusik denken. "Ra Clock" ist eine Sammlung verschiedener Stucke, die zwar orchestrierter, aber denoch improvisiert klingen und selbst in ihrem bruchstuckhaften Charakter noch das Anliegen und die Spielweise von Miguel aufs Beste vermitteln. Alles in allem kann ich von einer wirklichen Neuentdeckung sprechen. Es ware schon, wenn diese hier kaum bekannten Musikerlnnen in Zukunft auch in unseren allzu unveranderlichen und vorhersehbar agierenden Jazzszenen prasenter waren. Noel Akchoté, Skug, 2003