Margarida Garcia has developed a fearless language on bass.
Her devotion to the bass began in the very late 1990s. Like another iconoclastic bass player, Kim Gordon, the self-determination inherent in Margarida Garcia’s improvisational outflow benefits from the fact that she approached the instrument, right from the start, as a free individual, unfettered by rules. She learns, in part, by listening to the work of other musicians, such as Rudra veena master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. But mostly she learns from herself, hands on, as the interplay plumbs the depth of both instrument and instrumentalist.
This is not to say that she doesn’t have roots. Garcia has named early influences in music and art such as Max Neuhaus, Robert Smithson, Tony Conrad and Michael Snow. She has performed with many torches of improvisational and experimental music scenes, including Oren Ambarchi, Marcia Bassett, Chris Corsano, Loren Connors (who penned the liner notes for her Good Night CD), Helena Espvall, David Keenan, David Maranha, Manuel Mota, and others. Writers have discussed her music in terms of contemporary improvisation with psychedelic undercurrents.
But her sound is her own creation, and her approach is her own chosen path. Garcia is firmly in the foreground, and her electric double bass asserts itself as a solo instrument. Nowhere is this more evident than in her latest release. We have Byron Coley and Feeding Tube Records to thank for issuing this remarkable recording.
Good Night opens with “The Servant,” a riveting, ponderous piece. Over a period of about eight and a half minutes, Garcia layers deliberate, ponderous, sustained tones that feel like skin moving slowly against bare rock. At times, the bass reverberates like a giant cymbal. At other times, it sounds like a dragon bellowing deep within a cave.
The second track is well-named. “Spirit is a Bone” rumbles in the ear like gravestones in a cemetery, a fleeting sensation that comes just before dawn. You may find yourself reaching back to recapture the dream that just floated away. But somewhere, mid-piece in this eleven-minute tome, a fathomless river of sound moves you into a more challenging journey.
The recording closes with a stunningly beautiful composition.
“Good Night,” which well-deserves its ranking as the title piece, is both deep and uplifting. The music breathes slowly, gently moving vibrant oxygen into the blood, nourishing the body and the spirit. Washes of sound fill the cavern and float you up into the moonlight.
You have known the rock. You have known the dragon. You have known the journey.
And you are richer for it.
FTR716, released October 26, 2022.
