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| Giulio Gentile with Pietro Pancella and Michele Santoleri- Dream's Museum- Auand records |
The Italian pianist Giulio Gentile is a new name to me. Gentile is from Pescara, a coastal town along the Adriatic. It is in central Italy halfway between Ravena to the north and Bari to the south. Gentile has won several important awards throughout Italy and Europe, and he is rightfully starting to get attention beyond. His association as a duet with the supple vocalist Emanuella Di Benedetto produced a delightful and ethereal release in 2019 titled There is No Place Like Home, where Gentile provided the music and Di Benedetto provided the lyrics and vocalizations. We hope to hear more from this interesting duo in the future.
Gentile's sympatico relationship with his trio bandmates-double bassist Pietro Pancella and drummer Michele Santoleri- was first recorded on their 2022 album titled Insight, also on Auand. Having briefly listened to these two melodic and creative albums, its no wonder to expect anything but more exciting music from this fertile pianist and his bandmates on his latest Dream's Museum, released on March 7, 2025, and it doesn't disappoint.
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| Giulio Gentile (photo credit unknown) |
The album took a year to develop after it's debut album Insight, as the trio tried to explore different sounds and approaches to the music without varying too far from what they felt was their essence. Gentile says " ...this album has a wider range of colours, sounds, and rhythmic approaches, compared to the previous one." Thematically, the album is centered on the creative aspects that dreams have on the artist, in this case Gentile.
The music has a sense of being melodically driven in a contemporary pianistic way, but like some of jazz's best piano trios, the group is not rhythmically stuck, often introducing unexcepted dynamism and elasticity to their themes. The trio uses traditional instrumental sounds- double bass, drums and piano- and add contrast by introducing unusual sounds like a Glockenspiel to great affect.
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| Giulio Gentile Trio (photo credit unknown) |
The opening song "Dream's Gate" has a gorgeous opening from Gentile with a classical feel before it shifts dramatically, rhythmically, as Pancella's bass booms with authority and Santoleri's drum work is explosive. There is a freedom in their playing that seems unrestricted by what Gentile has laid down on his score and it is invigorating to hear them let loose and really get into it.
There are nine Gentile compositions ranging from just over five minutes to just over seven and one half minutes, and they all have appropriate ethereal character. "In Her Eyes" is a waltz-like feel to it. The trio varies the pace keeping the music unpredictable and they keep you wondering what might be next. There are parts that seem majestic before the trio settles back into the original pace. The listener, like we the dreamer, follows an unmarked path that leads us through the musical miasma to unknown places until we are awakened at the coda.
Other songs include "Guardians of Awakening," a shifting rhythm that features some powerful bass lines by Pancella. The bassist has a second sense of how to accentuate Gentile's music at just the right time. The music overflows with improvisational bravado.
"Life Finds A Way" introduces the bell-like chimes of Santoleri's Glockenspiel, adding a gentle tonal color to this one. Gentile's piano is fluid with a driven momentum that creates it's own splendor. Gentile's staccato piano lines match Santoleri's chime-work to create a synchronous line of varying colors that really stand out.
"Ancestral Roots" has a hymnal sound to it, tender, searching and emotional. . Pancella's double bass resounds with a burnished tone that is strong and impressive.
"Hopscotch," revives Santoleri's use of the chime-like sound of the Glockenspiel to the mix. Gentile's piano work is probing. Like a sleepwalker in a dream, he is traveling, discovering and trying to make sense of the constantly changing terrain. The pianist creates a vortex of ideas that all swirl and then hopscotch forward, as they navigate the suppressed reality.
"Subconscious" is a state of awareness in the mind that often challenges our sense of what we are seeing and this awareness is not available when fully conscious. Gentile tickles the piano keys, subtly teasing the subdued mood as if not awaken the trance. The trio are intuitively aligned in creating this mental state of suspension. Gentile's repeated piano lines accompanied by Pancella's driving bass and Santorleri's roiling drums end the piece like an attempt to shake oneself out of the stupor.
"L'Abisso." the Abyss, a deep and gaping emptiness, could be Gentile's metaphor for being in a dark creative hole. The music has a somberness to it and perhaps that is what he and his trio are trying to relate.
The final composition is titled "Join the Dots." The music has a jagged line that evokes to me a sleepwalker trying to navigate himself on a foreign terrain When your dreaming, you may not be able to "join the dots" of what you have just experienced in a dream state and make sense of it, to use it as creative inspiration. If you are able to recall your subconscious travels, you may like Thomas Edison, jot the waking thoughts down immediately and 'join the dots" that the creative side of your mind is trying to reveal to you. Inspiration through the subconscious has often been a trail for further creativity. Gentile seems to be one who can tap that mysterious resource.