With Mb�k�, pianist-composer David Virelles - based now in New York but born and bred in Cuba - has taken the folkloric rhythms of Afro-Cuban religious ritual and transmuted them into a 21st-century music resonating with mystery and meaning. The main title, Mb�k�, can mean "fundament" or "sugar cane" or "The Voice, " not the human voice but the Voice that is believed in Abaku� culture to be the voice of a spirit, or spirits. Sound is an element revered in this culture, and that idea - the worship of sound itself - was a shaping force in the performances of Virelles' compositions on Mb�k�.The album's subtitle - Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set and B iankom�ko Abaku� - indicates both the ritualistic intent of the 10 pieces & their sound, with piano as lead voice alongside dual bass drone and the polyrhythmic percussion of a traditional trap set and the all-important four-drum biankom�ko kit, manned by Rom�n Diaz. Virelles has tapped into a musical impulse that is simultaneously ancient and modern, communal and personal, meditative and propulsive. Mb�k� casts a spell.