Patricia Brennan Maquishti 2LP

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the May/June 2021 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Patricia Brennan's debut album "Maquishti" is released January 2021. Mexican born vibraphonist, marimbist, improviser and composer Patricia Brennan inherited a deep love and appreciation for musical tradition from both parents. She started studying music at 4 years old, playing Latin percussion along salsa records with her father and listening to Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zeppelin records with her mother.

As a teenager Patricia toured a member of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas and performed with renowned musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and Paquito D'Rivera. She then attended the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she performed alongside high caliber musicians from all over the world and conductors such as Simon Rattle and Charles Dutoit. She also performed with the prestigious Philadelphia Orchestra and other acclaimed new music groups such as members from Eight Blackbird.

Patricia's search for freedom in her musical expression led her to find her voice through the vibraphone and mallet percussion in improvisational music and composition. The New York Times observed, "Brennan has recently started to make her presence known on the New York avant-garde, working with such prominent bandleaders as Matt Mitchell and Michael Formanek."

Patricia is a member of Grammy nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus. She is also a member of Phalanx Ambassadors, a project led by pianist Matt Mitchell, and she is a member of Tomas Fujiwara's 7 Poets Trio along with cellist and composer Tomeka Reid. She has also collaborated with pianist Vijay Iyer as a member of Blind Spot with writer Teju Cole, along with bassist Linda Oh.

Patricia has appeared on several recordings, including an ECM recording with Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus called "The Distance" and Matt Mitchell's featured recordings "A Pouting Grimace" and "Phalanx Ambassadors" under Pi Recordings. Also, Patricia recorded a new record with the Grammy nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble called "All Can Work" which was released in January 2018 under New Amsterdam Records.

Challenging but never chaotic, contemplative yet too rigorous to be mistaken for ambient music, the experimental vibraphonist's solo debut carves out its own place in contemporary music.

With only the barest hints of melodic development, and nary a bebop or modern jazz trope to be heard, sumptuous echoes, ethereal decays, delicate clicks, swelling and ebbing rumbles, a panoply of metallic and wooden textures, and such intangible qualities as luminosity, reflectiveness, and soul meld into a sometimes soothing, sometimes dizzying, always enveloping aural realm into which it is a delight to sink.