Jazz
Dodicilune · 28 January 2026
“Ocean Song”, the third track, is three and a quarter minutes of piano and voice with no other instrument and no words that need understanding. It is the centre of “Bazrima”, which Dodicilune released on 28 January (ED611-7): ten compositions, thirty-four minutes forty-five, and a line-up of two (Andrea Goretti on piano and Sivan Arbel on voice and also piano) recorded in Cavalicco, near Udine, on 8 and 9 September 2025.
The title comes from a Hebrew word meaning “in flow”, and the working method bears it out: the pieces pass the melody back and forth instead of handing out soloist and accompanist roles. “Perpetuum Mobile”, three forty-one, is where this shows most, with Arbel’s voice entering and leaving a piano figure that never stops; “The World of the End” is the longest track at five minutes seven and the one that allows itself the most silence; “Adama Ayefa” opens the door to the folk music Arbel brings from home. The collaboration was built at a distance between two musicians who did not know each other.
The size of some pieces works against the premise. “The Void” is split into two parts that together do not reach five minutes, and “Angels’ Light” runs two eleven: four of the ten tracks fall below three and a half minutes, and on a piano-and-voice record, where everything depends on how a phrase develops, that leaves ideas stated and not unfolded. The two tracks that pass four minutes are precisely the ones that hold up best. Arbel is a singer, composer and arranger working between jazz and world music, Goretti is a jazz pianist, and “Bazrima” is the first record they sign together.
Rating: 7.0/10
Text by Aina Torrents