FANTASM

From jazz to classical, from through-composed pieces to spontaneous improvisations FANTASM Trio embodies 21st Century jazz. Taking its name from  a Paul Motian composition (with whom violist Mat Maneri has worked for 6 years) the trio inhabits the legendary  drummer’s preternatural sense of space and line, his example of how voices can be woven into an ensemble and Fantasm’s roadmap includes every possible three-piece variation: trio, solo, duet. Album out on NEMU records. 

“Ban, Maneri, Maurer with their respective instruments piano, viola, violin form a quite uncommon combination as an improvising trio. . . . On this album nothing sounds like ordinary strings. It has dark moods not fading into ordinary melancholia, contains limping dances into lightness, wondrous fusing dissolving in finale of quiet grandeur, uncatchable creep up shadows, splintering bop and bright solitariness per exemplum. Concentrated. Enjoyably disturbing”  Henning Bolte, album liner notes.

Press Highlights:

“Fantasm feels like something perfect, a masterwork of mood and nuance and microscopic melodic development . . . Fantasm is inspired forward-thinking music”
Greg Buium, Point of Departure

“Throughout the record, the musicians on Fantasm balance mystery and exuberance with continual movement. This is a record that incorporates space and stillness without ever being still”
David Kunian, Downbeat

“Beautiful improvised passages flowing organically forward, each with their own character and approach . . . a wonderful’ album full of musical treat”

“Maurer, Ban and Maneri have created a CD of shadowy subtlety that redefines the idea of a string trio”
Ken Waxman, NYCJR