YAKUZA are back with a new album. After the acclaimed and celebrated ‘AILERON’, the band has made itself heard on stage in the years since. Along the way, we were able to hear versions of their songs in concert with ‘LIVE at Festival Iminente’, a natural indicator of a band that didn’t stop at the studio and that, both during the pandemic and in their subsequent deconfinement, occupied themselves with this important facet of their music.
The band… well, let’s be honest: not even the members think of this entity as a ‘band’. YAKUZA is a mobile collective, a group of experienced musicians who have never been given to such borderline notions. On the new album ‘2’ there is only certainty that Afonso Serro, Afta3000, Pedro Ferreira, Alexandre Moniz and Pedro Nobre are the five fingers of a hand that overflows with unique fingerprints.
In addition to YAKUZA, all these musicians are heavily involved in the Portuguese musical fabric. Afonso Serro founded Mazarin and Atalaia Airlines; Afta3000 is an experienced bassist with an electronic music project; Pedro Ferreira is part of Quelle Dead Gazelle, and has produced the likes of Pedro Mafama, a Criatura and Expresso Transatlântico; Alexandre Moniz has been present in the indie universe, mainly as a member of Galgo; and Pedro Nobre is a jazz musician, with one foot in Portugal and the other in Holland and, at a young age, led the numerous band Loosense.
There’s an aesthetic direction that points to the more modern corners of jazz, but doesn’t ignore the electronics and the desire to dance that exists between the synthesisers, the syncopated drums, the luxurious keyboards and the big, powerful bass lines. There’s freedom to create new worlds in free jazz, as in ‘AIDA INTRO’, but let’s not forget the dreamscapes and a composition that doesn’t look at jazz as a watertight notion, whether in ‘TRUQUE DI MENTE’, ‘BATOTA’ or ‘MEIA DOSE’.
