Mansur, Sharon - Trigger LP

Jazz, Middle Eastern traditions, metal, electronica, classical music... ‘Trigger’ is the sum of Israeli pianist and keyboardist Sharon Mansur’s influences, and yet it also reflects the music of her home country. She says: ‘There is no distinct Israeli traditional music. Because the country is so young, Israeli music is always a mix of influences – from Europe, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and North Africa.’ Because her grounding on the piano in both classical and jazz was so thorough, Sharon Mansur can approach the most divergent types of music not just intuitively and playfully, but also with deep insight. She plays in melodic metal bands, tours with popular Israeli indie and crossover acts, performs electronic music in clubs and at festivals, and plays acoustic solo piano concerts. Sharon Mansur’s ACT debut ‘Trigger’, in her trio with double bassist David Michaeli and drummer David Sirkis, combines all these influences and crea tes a whole which is colourful and amazingly coherent. Powerful rhythms and melodies which recall Mansur’s metal and classical background – as in the opening track ‘Outside In’ – are juxtaposed with cinematic, ethereal pieces like ‘If I Can’. Quarter-tone lines, as in the keyboard solo of ‘Big Dreams in Kadikoy’, alternate with piano eruptions on the title track ‘Trigger’ and Bach-inspired melodies on ‘Tunnel Maze’. It is this combination of variety and depth that makes the music on the album so special. It also reveals Sharon Mansur’s vision of hope in a world full of conflicts and contradictions: ‘Music shows that we can work together, that we share the same emotions, even if we speak different languages. I hope that through music I can have at least a small positive influence on the world around me. If I can make people in the same place from different cultures smile and cry together, then that means everything to me.’