Under The Surface is a great jazz trio that I discovered back in 2018 when they played at Athens Jazz Festival and I was definitely impressed by them. They formed in Netherlands in 2015 by the drummer Joost Libjaart, the guitarist Bram Stadhouders and the jazz vocalist Sanne Rambags, three people that represent three generations (1967, 1987 and 1994) and yet they travel through their art on a common music journey, a journey that you cant really put under a specific genre since the improvisation is a major factor for them and they tend to skip the tight music structures of “regular” compositions. That’s why when you listen to their albums you don’t focus on specific tracks but in reality you let the album take you by the hand, it’s the exact same feeling you get when you see them live on stage.
They have now released their their third full length album, a beautiful piece of art, with some exceptional compositions and great playing by all of them. This time tt seems/feels less avant-garde, with more references to world elements, I guess their tour in many different places had a huge impact on them although they always seemed to be near such flavors.
One of the first things I noticed on the new album is the shortest length of the compositions, they are more compact but still magical enough and this applies to all of them, to the beautiful Stadhouders’ guitar harmonies, to the subtle but essential Lijabaart’s drumming and of course to the lively vocal improvisation of Rambags because she is the one that offers that extra touch without spoiling the final result, a great vocalist that has no problem to go from whispers to regular singing techniques. Last but not least it is interesting to know that the lyrics are in old dutch, a language that has been forgotten for 1000 years. It’s a funny thing that they don’t speak this language but they use it in the concept as another weird experiment that turned out really well and by doing this they managed to strength even more that unique atmosphere of the album.
