Comprised of Offir Benjaminov (bass), Tamuz Dekel (guitar) and Dan Mayo (drums), the Tel Aviv, Israel-based instrumental trio, Tatran whose sound draws from rather electric sources, including jazz fusion, classical, avant-garde, post rock, electronic music, post-punk and several others. And while their material does posses some uncanny melodies, based around each member’s virtuosic musicianship, they’ve received even more attention for a live show based primarily on improvisation and their deep, almost psychic connection with one another.
With the Israeli instrumental trio’s recently released effort No Sides, the band explains that they decided upon a complete and radical shift within their songwriting approach. Whereas, they had a long-held practice of deliberately and repeatedly composing and revising their recorded material piece by piece, the trio decided to take a big creative risk. No Sides is a live recording of a show with the members of the band hitting the stage without having anything actually prepared or mapped out in front of a concert hall with the hopes that they could grab and hold on to “the frequency of inspiration, allowing the music to present and unfold itself in real-time through our unmediated communication, with the energy and presence of the people in the room
“Everything about this project, from the concept, through the performance, to its release revolves around trust. Trust in the power of honest immediate expression, in the moment, in ourselves and in the communication with you,” the band says. Album title track “No Sides” may be one of my favorite tracks on the album. Clocking in at a little over 8 minutes, the song pairs a sinuous and slinky bass line, some funky boom-bap drumming, atmospheric electronics and effects pedaled guitar chords — with the end result being the band creating a steady, funky groove that nods at hip-hop, jazz fusion and drum ‘n’ bass electronica simultaneously.