Trempera! - Saturnalia

Trempera is a Catalan word meaning excitement, enthusiasm or pleasure. It is the name adopted by the Trempera! Quintet for their debut album, 'Saturnalia'.

Three of the musicians in Trempera! are Catalan: Lluc Casares on tenor sax and clarinet, Xavi Torres on piano and Joan Terol on drums. Bruno Calvo on trumpet is from Andalusia and Giuseppe Romagnoli on bass is Italian.

The album and track titles refer to the Ancient Roman festivities in honour of the god Saturn. It was a joyous festival characterised by role reversals. Masters served food to their slaves. Overeating and drunkenness were rampant and forbidden games were played.

We won a Records Award, given by the Keep an Eye Foundation, in a competition in Amsterdam, explains Joan Terol. The prize consisted of money to record and release an album. We wanted a unifying, concrete concept, instead of everyone just composing unrelated pieces. We thought it would be nice making happy, yet vigorous music that anyone can identify with, though composition-wise some parts might be complex. In reality the sound is surprisingly mellow and rounded, and the tracks are beautiful, being mainly original compositions written by Lluc Casares and Xavi Torres. The use of spoken word is also employed to create a story behind the album and five short pieces on the album feature poems written and eloquently performed by Sam Herman.