UNLEASHED

From Buenos Aires to New York. From Tokyo and Bezau to Berlin.
Distances that could hardly be greater – and yet they vanish in the moment of playing together.
When three people meet, listen, and play, everything becomes an opening: a letting go, a releasing.
UNLEASHED.

April 3, 2025.
After a concert with The Mars Volta at Madison Square Garden, Leo Genovese has ninety minutes
before the tour bus moves on.
In a small restaurant he meets Takashi Sugawa and Alfred Vogel.
Takashi – from Japan. Alfred – from Austria. The two don’t know each other.
Yet within moments a lightness emerges, a sense of closeness, a shared pulse.
By the end of the evening, an unspoken promise remains:
One day, we have to play together.
A few weeks later, this promise becomes reality.

May 2025.
Takashi is touring Europe, Leo is playing in Berlin with Esperanza Spalding. Alfred sets out on his way.
A studio is quickly found – and the invitation is as simple as it is open: spontaneous, without a plan.

Night of May 21 to May 22, 2025.
They record at Bonello Studio in Berlin – until the early hours of the morning. Martin Ruch, a top sound engineer captures everything: every movement, every breath, every unexpected turn.
A sonic space emerges that holds nothing back – music allowed to break its boundaries.
This is how UNLEASHED comes into being.

When Takashi later listens to the recordings, he writes:
“Something in this music has been set free. A spirit that wanders, that lives across times and
places.”
Leo replies:
“That’s it: a primal impulse, a force we share – each in our own way.”
The music moves between continents, between gesture and silence, between listening and breaking
loose.

A conversation of sound and space, of restraint and release.
UNLEASHED – a nocturnal encounter transformed into sound.
A crossing of paths, stories, and spirits –
and the moment when everything opens.
credits
released July 31, 2026

Leo Genovese – piano
Takashi Sugawa – double bass
Alfred Vogel – drums

recording, mix and mastering. by Martin Ruch, Berlin may 2025
recorded at Bonello Studios, Berlin

photo and artwork by Lucas Dietrich.
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