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Afterglow

Release Date: 2016-07-01
Available now on:
  • iTunes
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ALEX & NILUSHA present their third collaborative album ‘Afterglow’. Recorded in Melbourne, Sydney, Havana, New York and Buenos Aires it features eight new compositions by Alex Pertout and Nilusha Dassenaike.

The fusing of contemporary jazz, world music and pop reunites them with legendary US guitarist Mike Stern, Cuban violinist William Roblejo and Argentinian guitarist Alan Plachta, while colleagues Paul Grabowsky Geoff Hughes, Frank Di Sario, Colin Hopkins, Alister Spence, Evripides Evripidou, Phil Turcio and Miroslav Bukovsky contribute superb Australian performances. The release features new collaborations with two Cuban legends, the outstanding master of the tres Pancho Amat and folkloric master drummer Roman Pelladito on congas and the sacred bata drums.

Album Review

Acclaimed Melbourne-based world music duo of percussionist Alex Pertout and vocalist Nilusha Dassenaike have recently launched their third collaborative album in front of a studio audience at Radio IMER in Mexico City, followed by performances at the 2016 Cubadisco Festival in Havana Cuba. The pair won a Premio Internacional prize at that festival in 2015.

These eight originals – all with esoteric Latin rhythms – were recorded in Melbourne, Havana, New York and Buenos Aires with a huge variety of musicians, including outstanding US guitarist Mike Stern, numerous Australian players, plus two Cubans: Pancho Amat master of the Cuban tres guitar and legendary drummer Roman Pelladito on congas and sacred bata drums.

The title track has Pertout playing an astonishing fifteen different percussion instruments from berimbau – a Brazilian single string bow – to diverse bells, gongs, cymbals, shakers, drums, vibes, a glockenspiel and more. At the intro Nilusha provides an ethereal choir of background vocals before embarking on her wistful solo. Paul Grabowsky delivers a very appropriate electric piano solo ahead of Nilusha’s concluding stanzas and a chorale with ensemble fade-out.

Nilusha’s lyrics are romantic and philosophical, poetical and often abstract, as in Early Black Velvety Sky which opens with Pertout’s smart congas and features trumpet, violin, and percussion solos plus Amat’s tres guitar bringing skilful sketches of Havana.

This highly individualistic collection of originals can be categorised as exotic world/jazz in Latin rhythms with Nilusha’s celestial vocals and Pertout’s multi-instrumental expertise.
- JOHN MCBEATH - The Australian
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