
Unsaid
“Finding Ana”
(Oustide In Music)
More than a decade has passed since flutist and composer Yulia Musayelyan released her debut album, Caminos, in 2009. Her new sophomore recording, Unsaid (Outside In Music), came about as a result of her receiving a weeklong residence from Berklee College of Music in Boston — where she’s on faculty — to develop and record music at Guilford Sound studio in Vermont. In this “bubble,” Musayelyan and her bandmates were able to concentrate on the task at hand without distraction, and the results speak for themselves. The Moscow-born musician leads her quartet through a set of what feels like highly personal original compositions which strive to express the ineffable, thus inspiring the album’s title. On “Finding Ana,” Musayelyan’s breezy melodic lead rides a supple groove supplied by keyboardist Maxim Lubarsky, bassist Fernando Huergo and drummer Mark Walker, which shifts in mood and texture throughout. The leader’s immersion in jazz, classical and folkloric idioms provides great depth to her playing, and her closeness with her bandmates seems apparent. Lubarsky adds a chiming solo on Fender Rhodes, as Huergo and Walker supply the lock-tight rhythms, all of which heats up the stage for Musayelyan’s return.