A rabid bat caught in a winding jack-in-the-box, wanting for oxygen, gasping for air that is tremulous from the stacking of tones upon tones, realizing a mountain of thought in one note: Sound On Survival (S.O.S) .
In this trio Marco Eneidi, Lisle Ellis, and Peter Valsamis create music with a tenacious, subversive undercurrent.
Saxophonist Eneidi and bassist Ellis arrived separately in New York City while in their early twenties and, there, forged their artistry. Three decades later, on the opposite side of America, these two unique artists, each a leader in his own right, together with percussion master, Peter Valsamis, have gathered the force of their individual creative energies into a shared musical vision. The sum result is the formation of this phenomenal trio.
Eneidi, Ellis, and Valsamis are not attempting to present a “new movement in art music†or a fashionable “avant-garde approach.†S.O.S., instead, lets loose a primordial siren call that is possibly, or even probably, at odds with current trends. The dictates of contemporary music and art, in all its trappings, from the commercial to the experimental, seem rife with emphasis on conception (ideas in the mind) rather than perception (experiences of the body) which, arguably, reflects the superficial nature of our dire times.
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Against Pluralism
The first impression one might gain from this extraordinarily bold music is that any stance of neutrality simply must go by the boards--both while you are hearing it, and long after. One cannot remain blandly pluralistic with the sounds of this trio coursing through the nervous system: Bass "walking" that sounds more like running; a "ride" cymbal that careens through city streets at twice the speed of sound; saxophone glossolalia working that jab, using ancient and postmodern Morse codes.
The music of Ellis, Valsamis, and Eneidi--how is it possible? Because empathy is always present when human beings get together. The music serves as an anthem for this crucial aspect of the human condition, the "with-feeling" that draws us in as participant observers--not so much in an academic sense, but as listeners who become critically invested in the same work that these improvisors, like all human beings, draw upon for survival: games of chance, trompes d'oreille, reliance on intuition, sudden shifts of attention, goal-setting, predictions fulfilled or disconfirmed, and the vital discovery of form.
With its jump cuts, fast breaks, and slam-dunks, its combination of high intensity and utter relaxation, this radically collective music takes charge of consciousness, letting you know that it could go on indefinitely. More often than not, however, the sound suddenly comes to an arbitrated (but not arbitrary) ending. Retrospectively, it all makes sense, but in the moment, trust is one's only guide, and the musicians absolutely refuse to leave us forlorn.
George E. Lewis New York City, February 2005
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What is great about this trio: yes, they are amazing musicians, but they also know the difference between merely putting on a dry show of virtuosity and playing real music with soul and imagination.
Will York, San Francisco Bay Guardian