Michel Godard & Roberto Ottaviano – Astrolabio Mistico

Whether on serpent or electric bass, Michel Godard – who moved to southern Italy a few years ago – continues to explore his relationship with early or baroque music, and confirms his attraction to female voices.

In the company of transalpine partners, including the magnificent – and little-known in France – Roberto Ottaviano, who co-leads this group, the French musician, whose little presence on French stages never ceases to amaze me, offers a repertoire of compositions by himself, the saxophonist, the theorbo player or one of the two vocalists. Let’s take a closer look at Roberto Ottaviano, who – I repeat – is scandalously little known on our side of the Alps: he is one of the most important voices on the soprano saxophone, whose playing he honed with Steve Lacy, among others, although his beautifully fruity sound bears no resemblance to that of his American mentor.

Ottaviano is one of those Italian musicians who have developed their own identity by avoiding the pitfalls of hard bop and free jazz, so prevalent in Italy.

It’s hardly surprising that Godard should have chosen him as a partner: both have an immense love of sound and an atypical background that cares little for fashion or dominant trends. It is this appetite for sound that also explains Godard‘s attraction to the theorbo – to which he has had recourse in the past – which is here the only harmonic instrument, and whose sonority is splendid.

The same applies to his interest in the voice, particularly the female voice.

Godard lived for many years with the late transalpine vocalist Linda Bsiri, and was heard alongside the great Lucilla Galeazzi and the no less magnificent Cristina Zavalloni (see review on this site).

The two vocalists he has invited on this project, one a singer and the other a narrator, are not jazz musicians, but who cares? They play a full part in the dreamlike atmosphere that emanates from most of the tracks on this fine album, which may not appeal to strict jazz fans, but will please to all listeners with open ears, for whom sound is as important as it is for these five atypical musicians.