Short Stories Without Words – Vol. I

Short Stories Without Words Vol. I is Brazilian pianist André Mehmari‘s first album for ADS Records and marks the label’s debut. It is Exclusively Available at NativeDSD in Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD plus Stereo DSD 512. 

André Mehmari is considered one of the most talented and active Brazilian musicians of his generation. His activities as a pianist, composer and arranger are highly recognized in both popular and classical music. His career in jazz and Brazilian popular music has received considerable attention with performances at all the major jazz festivals in Brazil and abroad, including seven appearances in Japan, Europe at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy and Juan Les-Pins in France, and in the United States at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center, where one of his compositions was premiered at Carnegie Hall.

Practicing improvisation has always been a central part of my musical life. Here we present these short stories on solo piano, wordless tales that are concretised through sounds.
– André Mehmari

For this album, the songs were recorded entirely in a single session, resulting in two volumes with virtually no breaks between takes, no edits, and no cuts. André Mehmari shares some of the concept behind the album: “The flow of musical consciousness creates a narrative of sounds, textures and ideas. Here I present these little stories in solo piano, wordless stories that unfold through sounds. The improvisations are presented on this album in the order in which they were recorded, and the names given to each were conceived and later defined by me, without any influence on the act of spontaneous creation”.

Short Stories Without Words Vol. I was recorded in discrete surround 5.0 channels at Estúdio Monteverdi in January 2024 by Gustavo Cândido, using Schoeps and DPA microphones, Merging Technologies HAPI MKII Premium converters and preamps, Reaper and Pyramix DAWs on Ravenna AoIP, and Dynaudio Contours S Series speakers for surround monitoring in the ADS mastering room.

André Mehmari – piano