My relationship with music -perhaps this is the first time I write about it- is, indeed, very complex. Being a producer, therefore having to deal with music every day, when I clip myself a moment to listen to some new sounds, are rather hard ones. Discovery forces me to look inside myself, and sometimes it can be painful. By contrast, when I approached this record for the first time, I immediately felt a vigorous sense of bliss, comfort, as if the notes written by the pianist Masako Ohta and the trumpet player Matthias Lindermayr (in their album finely called MMMMH) touched me, without hurting me. That’s when some remarkable and well-known lyrics by Bob immediately came to mind. He says ‘One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain’. Well, like I said, I usually disagree but, in this case, I do. The nine improvised tracks featured in this LP are short stories that flow quietly, yet, persuasively, always leaving something unspoken, unsolved to the ears of the listener, which is something I love when applied to music.

The title ‘MMMMH’ was chose by the Munich based pair to suggest, in a figurative sense, the feeling of extreme pleasure given by a delicious meal and, indeed, this LP actually leaves a good taste in your mouth with its technical virtuosities, its smooth spontaneous melodies -present in each one of the nine unstudied compositions- and its brilliant inspirational aura. I really don’t want to fall into the trap of clichés by starting to describe every track in my own words, since I believe that this is one of those records that should be interpreted in its entirety. We can pick some of the songs and use them as an example to express some of the above mentioned feelings, so as not to wrong the artists who certainly, in a way, treat every song as it was a tiny little treasure with its own identity.

So, for instance, we can try to describe the sense of nostalgic tenderness that Trudelutt, the opening track, leaves on you. Or the peaceful fulfilment given by ‘All Good Things Are Four’ and ‘Kogia’, quietly disoriented by the impression of suspension that ‘Ayet’ brings, instantly shocked by the tumultuous, anarchic jazzy energy of ‘Penguin’ and the smooth triumphalism of the closing ‘La’. Yet, it would be simplistic to classify this album with simple words, being it such a spontaneous sonic representation of Masako Ohta’s and Matthias Lindermayr’s feelings. Therefore, we will just abandon ourselves to these sounds, respecting each note and appreciating every second of ‘MMMMH’.

The record, which is the 18th release of the catalogue, is out on the 21st of October 2022 (vinyl and digital) on Squama Records, the ‘quasi’ Jazz label from Munich which we thank for backing up such a beautiful opera. As for us, we’ll talk soon…