Anita Petruescu Group is a modern creative jazz quintet based in the Netherlands. This
music has been recorded this year on Anita’s debut album, “All layers beneath the surface” and consists of original material, performed by versatile musicians, with strong artistic intentions, bound and driven by a desire for freedom.
"I would never want us to luxuriate in a sound that is only "beautiful". But a sound that is broad. Soothing, graceful or bold and fierce, it reveals a boundless energy, sourced from aspects that often shape our existence. A sound that urges one to apprehend the complexity and contradiction that resides in human existence, and grows thicker than the layers of our skin." It displays colorful vocal lines, harmonic tensions, power dynamics, unexpected twists, a distinctive, hybrid sound finding theatrical and folklore nuances. The music carries a sense of pondering, with a touch of sadness, warmth and loose intimacy, as well as accumulated tension released and resolved in the midst of improvisation. Anita has a taste for extensive melodies, traveling fast from high to low registers. Fend’s elegant and sophisticated bowed playing, along with Miran’s harmonic choices, follow and make room for guitar phrase development throughout solos. Nonetheless, drummer Laurens Buijs constantly keeps pace, vamping, accenting, oftentimes leading into a burst of polyrhythms or laying back the feel.
Anita drew inspiration from her heroes’ work and artistry, amongst whom bassist Esperanza Spalding, and vocalist Cecile Mclorin Salvant, along with her deep connection to Romanian folklore. An implicit purpose is to preserve this rich tradition in her contemporary expression. Intuitively anticipating each player’s strength and noteworthy instances, Anita imagined the composed material and entrusted her musical partners with enough room for
adventure.
"All layers beneath the surface is a call for awakening, seeking clarity and depth through
our brief and fleeting existence, stopping for a minute to breath, think, or simply just be in the
moment, for real. Isn’t it all a multi-faceted, labyrinthine nature and potentially infinite story? A tale within a tale, an enduring beautiful narrative, penned and revised until humanity’s final breath. And within it, there is my story. Shaped and reshaped, written and revised, up to the present day. Layered beneath the surface.”
Line-up:
Anita Petruescu – voice
Miran Noh – piano
Agus Fulka – guitar
Johannes Fend – double bass
Laurens Buijs – drums
