Rosa Brunello // The Eisenberg Review Interview
Photo by Elena Botti
On We Are Surging Waters, Italian bassist and composer Rosa Brunello leans into movement—musical, communal, and geographic—shaping a record that feels less like a fixed statement than a living system. Recorded over three days with a close-knit ensemble, the album trades rigid structure for momentum, driven by dual drummers, elastic grooves, and a melodic language that draws from jazz, dub, and Middle Eastern traditions without settling into any one place. If earlier work felt more centered, this one moves outward, darker in tone but more expansive in spirit, animated by the chemistry of long-standing collaborators like Yazz Ahmed and Maurice Louca.
That sense of collective energy extends beyond the studio. A recent performance revisiting Bitches Brew alongside Ahmed offers a fitting parallel, music built on trust, risk, and the possibility of discovery in real time. On We Are Surging Waters, Brunello channels that same ethos into a set of pieces that blur composition and improvisation, grounding their openness in rhythm while allowing space for memory, resistance, and exchange to surface.
I caught up with Brunello to discuss the making of We Are Surging Waters, the role of collectivity in her work, and why you won’t find her music on on Spotify.
