released July 14, 2018

Joachim Badenhorst : clarinet and bass clarinet
Susana Santos Silva : trumpet
Gonçalo Almeida : double bass, keys, effects and loops
Greg Smith : drums and electronics

1) Metamorphosis I
2) Metamorphosis II
3) Metamorphosis III
4) Comacina Dreaming
5) Dark Corner
Tracks 1, 2 and 3 by Gonçalo Almeida,
4 by Joachim Badenhorst and 5 by Greg Smith

Recorded by Piet Vermonden at Jazzcase series Dommelhof, Neerpelt on the 21st January 2016 | Mixed by Greg Smith and Gonçalo Almeida at BGS Studio, Rotterdam | Mastered by Bernardo Fesch at Gizmeister Studios, Lisbon Produced by LAMA | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos | Photo by Cees Van de Ven


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By Stef Gissels on Free Jazz Blog
****½ Sunday, December 17, 2017

They're back. After the acclaimed "The Elephant's Journey", the international band consisting of Joachim Badenhorst on clarinet and bass clarinet, Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, Gonçalo Almeida on double bass, keys, effects and loops, and Greg Smith on drums and electronics. And we're glad they're back with an even stronger suite-like album, one that grows with each listen. All tracks are "composed", or should I say structured around an agreed build-up and some common melodies, or melodic phrases, because the word "theme" seems too heavy in this light-textured and dark album. Conceptually, it's a long metamorphosis, as the tracks are called, growing out of faint nothingness, out of eery drone-like electronics, something emerges ... a hard to describe sound or cluster of sounds, weird and welcoming, with whispers of wind and high vibrating tones from trumpet and clarinet. Tension mounts. Electronics and percussive screeches create a psychedelic atmosphere that shifts into a slow pulse, driven by a gentle phrase on the clarinet, a deep bass ... opening fully, blossoming with Susana Santos Silva's klezmer-like warm melody inviting the clarinet for counterpoint improvisation, sensitive and fragile and at the same time joyful and sad. Then amazingly the electronics and drums drive the whole tune away, transforming the piece into sheer agony, anger and pain, full of chaos and madness. As a listener, you've travelled a long way. You've experienced a myriad of conflicting emotions, leaving you perplexed. And it works. It works well. The second metamorphosis starts joyfully with clarinet and trumpet weaving similar phrases together without finding the unison, increasing the tempo gradually until the whole thing becomes really violent until it shifts into slow and calm open space, density disappears as tension and expectation increase. Here again, out of seeming chaos a wonderful tune emerges - somewhat reminiscent of a Harris Eisenstadt composition on Guewel - and then you notice that it's actually been there all along. Free improvisation and planned moments merge perfectly into each other, adding surprise and wonder as you are taken along on this wonderful journey. Like on the band's other albums, beauty and lyricism are contrasted with darkness and harsh sounds, or not even that, they are part of the same flow, they are the same, just in another form or shape. And that makes it fascinating. The album also has the band's version of Joachim Badenhorst's "Comacina Dreaming", a wonderful folk theme, that could have been part of the Godfather soundtrack, dark and dancing, and we have already heard on albums by Equilibrium, Mikkel Ploug, Carate Urio and Celio/Baggiani Group. Its etheric tone gets a totally different perspective here, and the theme gets one of its best renditions by Santos Silva's deep yearning tone, alternating between growls and purity. The album ends with a Greg Smith composition, "Dark Corners", which flows out of the previous track like a funeral march, slow, rhythmic and sad. The strength of this music starts with the strenghts of the compositions - and kudos to Almeida for that - combined with the four artists' clear vision of what kind of out-of-the-box music they want to play together. There is no script for a unique sound. It requires a deep understanding of each other's sensitivities and taste, and I would say that here the match is perfect in just doing that: to create a very special signature sound together. This is the kind of magic I like. And you should too!
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On Salt Peanuts by Eyal Hareuveni

Metamorphosis» captures the spirit of the fourth album of the LAMA trio. The trio – led by prolific Portuguese double bassist Gonçalo Almeida with fellow-Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and Canadian drummer Greg Smith hosts for the second time Belgian clarinet player Joachim Badenhorst, following the expanded LAMA album, «The Elephant’s Journey» (Clean Feed, 2015). The trio-turned-quartet explores now electro-acoustic territories on Almeida’s three-part suite «Metamorphosis». On this complex 36-minutes suite Almeida adds loops and effects and some keyboards to his bass and Smith’ extends his percussive work with his laptop electronics. This sonic approach of the expanded LAMA shifts from the supposedly clean, acoustic-chamber format into an unsettling, dark soundscapes, full of dirty and distorted, otherworldly sounds. The expanded arsenal of sounds enables all the four musicians to refresh and distil their vocabularies, expanding the acoustic timbres and investigating experimental palette of processed and sampled sounds. On the first part of the «Metamorphosis» suite Santos Silva and Badenhorst develop slowly the fragile, playful East-European them, sometimes sounding as quoting ideas from John Zorn’s early Masada book, through the nuanced, fractured soundscape of Almeida and Smith. On the second part Santos Silva set the tense and intense atmosphere with her urgent, searching interplay, colored sparsely by Almeida and Smith. Only on the last part the quartet balances between the strong melodic sensibilities of Santos Silva and Badenhorst and the rhythmic inventions of Almeida and Smith. Badenhorst’s short «Comacina Dreaming» uses the electronic effects and loops to sketch a mysterious cinematic piece. This piece highlights, again, the natural, immediate interplay that Badenhorst – now on the bass clarinet – has solidified with Santos Silva. Smith’s also short «Dark Corner» sound as logical conclusion of Badenhorst piece, but suggests a different equilibrium the ethereal-melodic blows and whispers of Santos Silva and Badenhorst and the weird-sounding, ritualistic pulse of Almeida and Smith.
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On Gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot

The world of Portuguese new music-avant jazz is a most fertile one. I have been happy to cover it increasingly over the years. It surely forms one of the more vibrant and varied, innovative and original scenes out there today. An especially rewarding outfit is that of LAMA, which if you type their name into the search box above you will see I have been reviewing on a regular basis for some time. The latest, Metamorphosis (Clean Feed 433) brings into the fold once again clarinetist-bass clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst for a rather riveting set. LAMA itself consists of Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, Goncalo Almeida on double bass, keys, effects and loops, and Greg Smith on drums and electronics. The music combines compositionally directed and free improv sounds in very logical and earthy ways. Of the five segments as recorded at Jazzcase last January, three are by Almeida, and one each are by Badenhorst and Smith. Ms. Silva has ubiquity and strength on trumpet; Badenhorst counters with his own clarinet-family gumbo. The rhythm-electronics team of Almeida and Smith bring a huge presence to the music conceptually and personality-wise. They are a big reason why everything hangs together while it expands outwards continually. I cannot do proper justice to the music using the words at hand to me this Monday morning. That would take a great deal more effort, because this is not easily categorized. It is new, involved, evolved and free yet carefully thought-out. What is important is in the hearing, after all. And so I do heartily recommend you hear this one repeatedly. It is much a thing to absorb you and give some meaning to what is the modern now. Take it on seriously and you will be the richer for it.
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On Free Form Free Jazz by Fabricio Vieira

New chapter of the partnership between the Lama Trio - formed by the Portuguese Gonçalo Almeida (bass) and Susana Santos Silva (trumpet) alongside the Canadian Greg Smith (drums) - and the Belgian clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst, Metamorphosis is like a continuation of the previous "The Elephant's Journey", 2015, but that deepens such experience. Recorded in January 2016 at JazzCase in Neerpelt, Belgium, Metamorphosis new tracks point to curious directions, with electronic interventions gaining more prominence - elements that come from two fronts, led by Almeida (effects and loops) and Smith (electronic). The electro acoustic experience created generates different and heady climatic results, well represented in the opening theme ("Metamorphosis 1"), in which the winds wander over pulsars that create a very special space that lasts until half of the theme when drums and bass dive into something more jazzy, towards a very noisy end. "Metamorphosis 2" makes a different game, starting in the acoustic space and suffering electro, more punctual interference in its nucleus. The free jazz potentiality is well represented in "Metamorphosis 3", marked by the contagious bass of Almeida. Already "Dark Corner", which closes the record, seems to resume more clearly the ways of opening theme. New possibilities from a group, which always with something fresh to offer.




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OpDuvel Blog by Gert Derkx

Bassist Gonçalo Almeida is a productive musician. In the last few months, three CDs were published with Portuguese portraits: The Attic with Rodrigo Amado and Marco Franco, The Selva of the same-name trio (Almeida, Ricardo Jacinto and Nuno Morão) and Bulliphant Hightailing, a quintet completed by Three Belgians (Bart Maris, Ruben Verbruggen and Thijs Troch) and a Dutchman (Friso van Wijck). In the last company, it is also fooled with electronics, especially by Troch.
LAMA exists in addition to Almeida from Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and the Canadian drummer Greg Smith, the Netherlands. On the debut album Oneiros from 2011, the three were still singles alone, but on successor Lamaçal , the trio set-up with the American saxophonist / clarinetist Chris Speed was extended to quartet. The third album, The Elephant's Journey , appeared in 2015, and the trio is complemented by Belgian bassist clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst. The collaboration is obviously good, because also on Metamorphosis is Badenhorst of the party.
LAMA stands for reasonably accessible jazz with avant-garde features. The music is less innocent than it seems at first hearing and contains the necessary spells, sometimes appearing on the surface and sometimes hidden in an under layer. The four musicians are again one step further in their collaboration, and you are talking about Metamorphosis .
Like Bulliphant, LAMA is playing with electronics, but Almeida and drummer Greg Smith take that part. The input of electronic elements occurs subtly and sometimes almost unnoticed; It is not at the expense of the predominantly acoustic sound of the four.
Opening track 'Metamorphosis I' begins with electronic sounds and keyboard play, creating a calm ambient-like atmosphere. The clarinet game of Badenhorst closes seamlessly. The slightly deformed sounding bass of Almeida plays an oriental melody shortly, but it is still on the rise. The music stays spherical for the first five minutes.
The short melodic phrase of the bass slowly introduces the transition to more movement. The exciting electronic drone is left after a little seven minutes. Santos Silva now plays the oriental melody and Badenhorst concurs. The combination of the two blazers is beautiful, whether they are playing unison or each own melody. Almost unnoticed the electronic sounds disappear. Badenhorst solves, Almeida blows away, Smith disregards and spies Santos Silva. The intensity increases because Almeida and Smith are becoming increasingly robust. Badenhorst remains inexperienced playing his melodic game and gets a company later by Santos Silva. With the weather-emerging electronics, a noisy final is played.
This contrasts with the opening of 'Metamorphosis II', which is taken care of by the intersecting blazers, but there is no longer any rest here. Smith taps and hits a backbone rhythm and as soon as Almeida plays a running bass line, the game becomes increasingly nervous. Suddenly, the rest is there, though Smith is doing his best to disturb pestilence. Especially beautiful is the trumpet solo of Santos Silva after six minutes, in which often no crystal clear sounds are produced, but her tone is grainy, has a raglan. Smith adds ticking sounds after a few minutes. Part two of the triptych ends with a loom and bluesy piece that passes into a fast and jazzy part.
Almeida's deep double bass starts 'Metamorphosis III'. After his solo, he puts down the theme where Santos Silva and Badenhorst play over. Silva shows her class in a solo in which she effortlessly switches from low to high and back. Almeida returns the pace and now it's Badenhorst's turn for a melodic solo. In the end, the electronics are put into line.
'Metamorphosis' is from Almeida's hand, but the plate contains two more pieces. 'Comacina Dreaming' is a composition of Badenhorst. At the beginning, keyboards and electronics sound. However, the bass clarinet of Badenhorst also lies in those sounds. Santos Silva solves with the necessary rest, while the electronics creates the unrest. Occasionally, the game of Santos Silva in this piece reminds Dave Douglas at the time of Charms of The Night Sky or Mountain Passages . The electronics disappears unnoticed to the background and Badenhorst is now the fast-playing party. The album ends with 'Dark Corner', from Smith, in which Almeida plays a slow bass line and Santos Silva and Badenhorst alternately or together the theme. The beautiful melody is gloomy and slow.
The trio LAMA supplemented with Joachim Badenhorst is a golden combination, so late after The Elephant's Journey also hears Metamorphosis. The four musicians seem to make each other both melodic and experimental. The compositions are already strong, but the way in which they are already being interpreted improperly is quite fascinating. Wonderful music with a sharp edge.