Recorded in early November 2025, SAILING THROUGH unfolds across eight tracks as a sonic journey through the many currents of contemporary jazz, enriched by influences drawn from a wide range of musical languages. The album explores a porous musical landscape, where stylistic boundaries dissolve and distant sounds are brought into dialogue.
At the heart of the project lies the search for a natural equilibrium between artistic exploration and an almost singer-songwriter-like expressiveness, in which each composition and every timbral nuance becomes a vehicle for memory, imagined narratives, and emotional resonance. The music of the Landscape Trio thus forms a cohesive soundscape, where written material and improvisation merge into a single expressive continuum.
The album opens with A Raindrop Story (E. Bez), a piece built around non-functional harmony—an approach that recurs throughout the record—and marked by a lyrical 5/4 pulse reminiscent of Metheny-inspired aesthetics. Conceived as the imagined journey of a raindrop, the piece sets the reflective tone of the album.
Hokusai (A. Pellarin) draws inspiration from the renowned Japanese painter, unfolding through layered polyrhythms that evoke movement, contrast, and visual depth.
The third track, Esa (C. Guidolin), is a 3/4 composition infused with subtle echoes of Charlie Haden and harmonically rooted in the language of contemporary American jazz.
Scirocco 12/11/19 (A. Pellarin) was written in response to the “Acqua Granda” disaster that struck Venice—Pellarin’s hometown—in 2019. Structured as a short suite, the piece blends elements of contemporary British jazz with influences from modern progressive rock, reflecting both turbulence and resilience.
Cloud Atlas (E. Bez), inspired by the harmonic world of pianist Richie Beirach, is perhaps the album’s most openly “ECM-like” track. It evolves through shifting rhythmic states, moving from a rubato opening into a steady 4/4, alternating dense passages with more ethereal textures. Notably, the main theme emerges only at the conclusion, after extended double bass and guitar solos, mirroring the elusive and ever-changing nature of clouds.
Shibuya (E. Bez) pays tribute to the music of jazz-fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth and represents a deliberate push toward new expressive frontiers. Its driving energy and complex harmonic language reflect the frenetic vitality of the Japanese metropolis from which it takes its name.
Kind Folk (K. Wheeler), a cornerstone of the European jazz repertoire, stands as a homage to Kenny Wheeler, whose musical legacy has profoundly influenced the trio’s artistic identity.
The album concludes with La Via del Mare (E. Bez), a slow and melancholic 6/8 composition that blends rock-inflected sonorities with the subtle interplay of jazz. Rooted in childhood memories of the guitarist, the piece offers a reflective closing gesture, suspended between nostalgia and quiet introspection.
A new album added to the rich tradition of jazz literature in Italy by 3 promising young musicians, Emiliano Bez (guitar), Christian Guidolin (double bass), Andrea Pellarin (drums). I’m always glad to see young musicians dare to diverse, to not rely only on safe “recipes” but considering music as a journey of self improvement, asking questions seeking for answers and getting into a process of a constant quest. This is what brings music and art in general forward. These three young musicians and Emiliano, witch it happens to know better my self, are the case of self questioning of curiosity and self development. They have created this collaborate sonic album with they entitled SAILING THROUGH a representative and successful for the case title. This album showcases clearly the open questions to the world and the phycism of the three musicians, moving in an almost ambient environment the open sound of Emiliano’s guitar in combination with the coloring touch of drummer A.Pellarin. This is brought together with the stable presence of bassist C. Guidolin. The non functional harmonic enviroment witch I would better call “neotonality” in combination with odd rhythms well incorporated gives the character to the final result of this album. A musical proposal that worth exploring. I’m going to wish to these three musicians to have a lot of “positive wind” in their sails.
Georgios Tsolis
I have known and followed the members of this group for several years, having had the privilege of being one of their teachers at the Conservatories of Padua and Vicenza. From their earliest years of study, I have always appreciated their seriousness and dedication—qualities that today find full expression in a work of remarkable artistic maturity entitled SAILING THROUGH.
The album opens with the original 5/4 composition A Raindrop Story, imbued with clear Metheny-like influences, which brings to the fore the refined sound and lyricism of guitarist Emiliano Bez. I previously had the opportunity to collaborate with Bez on his debut album Wordless Tales (Dodicilune, 2023), and his musical voice is once again confirmed here with great clarity.
Also penned by Bez are Cloud Atlas, an angular yet highly compelling piece whose sonorities recalled to me bands such as Quest, and La Via del Mare, a track in which the trio reaches a particularly high level of creative interaction.
Equally noteworthy is Hokusai, composed by drummer Andrea Pellarin, in which the trio—and Pellarin in particular—demonstrates a confident command of polyrhythmic language. Scirocco 12/11/19, also by Pellarin, is a highly engaging suite and stands out as the track most clearly influenced by British progressive rock of the 1970s.
Esa, written by double bassist Christian Guidolin, is a 3/4 piece of rare beauty that highlights both the composer’s structural awareness and his instrumental mastery. Special mention must also be made of the contribution of the excellent Lorenzo Cucco in Bez’s Shibuya. Endowed with a powerful and incisive sound, the saxophonist further enriches the trio’s sonic palette, returning once more in the celebrated Kind Folk by the great Kenny Wheeler—a true manifesto of the ECM jazz aesthetic.
A multifaceted album, SAILING THROUGH draws on various currents of contemporary jazz while engaging in dialogue with neighbouring genres. It is a journey that breaks down boundaries, bringing together sounds that are often far removed from one another, yet here united within a coherent and personal artistic vision.
Francesco Angiuli