Virelles, David : Mboko

With Mboko, pianist-composer David Virelles based now in New York but born and bred in Cuba has taken the folkloric rhythms of Afro-Cuban religious ritual and transmuted them into a 21st-century music resonating with mystery and meaning. The main title, Mboko, can mean fundament or sugar cane or The Voice, not the human voice but The Voice that is believed in Abakua culture to be the voice of a spirit, or spirits. Sound is an element revered in this culture, and that idea the worship of sound itself was a shaping force in the performances of Virelles compositions on Mboko. The albums subtitle Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set and Biankomeko Abakua indicates both the ritualistic intent of the 10 pieces and their sound, with piano as lead voice alongside dual bass drone and the polyrhythmic percussion of a traditional trap set and the all-important four-drum biankomeko kit, manned by Roman Díaz. Virelles has tapped into a musical impulse that is simultaneously ancient and modern, communal and personal, meditative and propulsive. Mboko casts a spell.