Free Fall is the first album (and hopefully not the last!), in fact EP, by the Franco-British group Naïram. The group is strongly influenced by British jazz with its organic and transversal colors – one thinks of Ezra Collective, Maisha… Composed by double bassist and project leader Jasmine Lee, each piece offers pure, yet complex harmonic ambiances, with soloists Alexandre Aguilera (transverse flute) and Nicolas Audouin (clarinet) giving it their all.
Both in the melodies, sometimes carried by one or the other, sometimes blending into a fluid counterpoint, and both in their superb improvised solos, the timbres of the two instruments demonstrate their definite compatibility to the point of making us wonder why this has been so little exploited until now in this style.
The rhythm section underpins the whole with a gentle Afrobeat influence and drummer Mateo Roussel’s varied and interesting choice of sounds. The woody timbre of the double bass directs each piece with effective, well-thought-out lines and grooves.
Guitarist Marion Delmont, for her part, guarantees the harmonic enunciation, but also lends a good deal of ambiance thanks to her carefully crafted effects and textures, and leads us into daring, more electric, unprecedented atmospheres, notably on Snowy Spring with an absolutely enthralling solo.
It all comes together in a sound that’s definitively serene, solid, and innovative: a clear meeting of talented musicians at the service of crossbred music, in which everything seems to be dosed with such precision that it plunges us into dreams.
