Sheets of Sound

Let us pretend, for a moment, that we are in 1958. John Coltrane is trying to relaunch his career after being fired from the Miles Davis quintet the previous year due to his heroin addiction. The dizzying improvisations he develops are described by critic Ira Gitler, in notes for “Russian Lullaby,” an original Irving Berlin piece included in Soultrane, released that year, as “sheets of sound.” [“I’m sure this Lullaby would keep Nikita (Khrushchev) awake and swinging all night.” he wrote.] The title chosen for this second album by Transition Unit — a group that is two-thirds Portuguese, with pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro and saxophonist José Lencastre, and one-third Belgian, with guitarist Dirk Serries — may not be related to Gitler’s expression, but that hardly matters. “I immediately found a connection to the music we made in the studio,” explains Pinheiro. “Each of us builds one or more layers with information that is sometimes different from the layers created by the other musicians.” This is an ensemble without double bass or drums and with two harmonic instruments, a characteristic that demands a more complete approach to music — especially the kind they are devoted to, improvised music — raising the bar of what is required. Rodrigo Pinheiro likes to call it an unbalanced trio. They pick up where everything had left off on their debut, Face Value, released in 2024 on A New Wave of Jazz, but they do not limit themselves to mere continuity, logical or illogical: Sheets of Sound is a decisive step forward in the creative intersection of distinct yet complementary musical personalities. This is no doubt connected to the experience of the three musicians having since performed live together, which allowed the organic quality of their interactions to grow exponentially. The album was recorded at the end of 2024 in a studio in Belgium equipped with a Blüthner piano from the dawn of the twentieth century, painstakingly restored. Despite its natural limitations when compared to modern instruments, this piano revealed a timbre and a charm that forced the pianist to play differently in order to draw out its full potential. The recording session lasted nearly two hours. The only prior arrangements concerned the beginnings and their respective intensities. The improvisations that emerged are free from hierarchies and subordination: the instruments are on equal footing in the sonic construction, listening levels are high, and the interaction is intimate. There is also a chamber music quality that underscores the acoustic dimension of the instruments. But there are striking differences from the past that deserve attention. The woven language is now more intuitive and, perhaps paradoxically, more mature, revealing a greater desire to take risks. In Sheets of Sound the meticulous interplay between guitar and piano stands out — instruments that share the same part of the sonic spectrum — and the mutual attentiveness, aimed at exploring synergies and avoiding collisions, carrying the music into unexpected situations that demand resolution. Lencastre uses the harmonic and rhythmic carpet that both create to explore the melodic component, always present but never obvious. Silence plays a decisive role here: what is not there, what happens in the interstices, is as significant as what we hear. “Managing when to play and when not to play is fundamental to maintaining the balance of the stories we try to tell,” Rodrigo Pinheiro tells us. “The decision not to play sometimes becomes more important than doing the opposite.” From the very first notes of “Embark,” we are drawn into a dreamlike atmosphere, with the sparse piano, the serene breath of the saxophone, and the guitar acting as the balancing force, displaying a constant harmonic concern. Serries provides a telegraphic cue for the restlessness of “Accent Marks a Note,” whose opening section highlights contrapuntal interplay, carving space for a surreptitious tension to expose the delicacy of the sonic edifice. There are moments of call and response and others of pure confrontation. In the second part, the atmosphere suddenly grows calmer, in a gradual crescendo toward its final breath. “In Succession” — which says (almost) everything about its relationship to the preceding piece — possesses a mysterious beauty, with the saxophone adding a layer to the patient labor of piano and guitar. At a certain point, the intensity increases without any loss of focus or clarity. More tense and nervous, “Action Beat” reveals saxophone and piano creating an energetic pattern, while the guitar provides rhythmic and harmonic support, until everything dissolves into the most eloquent silence. “Foreshadowed” is an eccentric ballad, with Lencastre and Pinheiro venturing into a spacious harmonic register, exploring colors and timbres. “Element of Heart,” a sonic filigree, has piano and guitar laying out the foundations for the saxophone to contribute to an intricate three-way interplay. The guitarist weaves his swift brushstrokes with Pinheiro’s crystalline notes, over which Lencastre roams freely. As the curtain falls, “Subtle Pattern Closure,” the longest piece on the album and its closing gesture, brings an (apparent) tranquility that keeps us alert, in an unbroken flow, as if something were lurking, imminent. Transition Unit offers us in Sheets of Sound music that is beautiful and elegant, in a world on fire. António Branco Lisbon, April 2026