Album Review: Self-Titled Release from Ayna Veer

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Album:  Ayna Veer
Artist:  Ayna Veer
Label:  Self-Release
Website:  https://aynaveer.com
         https://aynaveer.bandcamp.com

Ayna Veer's self-titled recording layers ambient passages with improvised jaunts tailored by alto saxophonist Vernau Mier and pianist Aydin Esen.  Supporting Mier's and Esen's spontaneous flights is drummer Eric Valle and double bass player Nadav Erlich.  Reflective moments are interspersed with soaring verses rife with heady frenzies and fomenting whirlwinds.  The recording is a pleasing cruise that fuses ambient soundscapes and jazz idioms.

The natural fluidity of the melodic passages creasing "Secret Wallflower" lays the groundwork for Mier's swathe of improvised expressions on the saxophone.  The agile doodles performed by Nadav Erlich on bass along "Improvisation #2" give the track an avant garde skew, moving into pioneering terrain  through "Trip to H" with Eisen's nimble movements on the keys.  "Improvisation #3" and "Improvisation #4" are laden with abstract forms and irregular rhythmic patterns, branching into experimental musings.

The quartet creates conversations with their melodic passages, toggling between putting the listener at peace like in "The Last Fifteen Days" and challenging the listener with instruments moving in various directions as displayed in "Improvisation #5."  There is an avant garde tint in the recording ambling side by side with ambient soundscapes.  Mier's expressive playing demonstrates a multi-faceted repertoire with experimental leanings.

Musicians:
Vernau Mier - alto saxophone and effects
Aydin Esen - piano and synths
Nadav Erlich - double-bass
Eric Valle - drums


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