Two Trios

By Paul Acquaro

  

Two trios - both drums, bass and saxophone but taking their own distinct approaches to making creative, inquisitive and exciting improvised music...

 Nebbia / Banner / Andrzejewski - Presencia (ears&eyes Records, 2025)

Argentinian saxophonist Camilla Nebbia has had a banner year. Her Berlin home seems to be a hub for her multifarious activities, hitting festivals around the continent and beyond. Somehow the busy saxophonist has also found time to record a number of excellent albums that came out this year. Presencia, a recent addition to her rapidly growing discography, was captured in Berlin by the working trio of Nebbia, bassist James Banner and drummer Max Andrzejewski.

 

The trio is a collaborative effort - each musician bringing compositions and full dedication to the music. From the moment the sounds emerge, their affinity is clear to be heard. The album starts with 'Choco,' named lovingly after everyone's favorite sweet, and which begins with a 'classic' free jazz riff and then unfolds quickly into atonal smears and rhythmic forays. The follow-up track, 'Arid' begins with a plodding, rubato rhythmic figure and lightly blown harmonic tones. Invoking images of dryness and dust, the tune grows slowly through the parched and cracked musical soil. Soon, 'Lugar' practically jumps out of the speakers. The group focus is intense as Banner's bass thumps urgently, Andrzejewski's drums pulsate and Nebbia herself seems to nearly bursts with building tension. The clear, insistent melodic lines and unrelenting rhythmic drive is a cathartic listening experience.

 

The musicianship is unwaveringly strong, whether the trio is luxuriating in comfortable tonal pools or exploring the most dissonant edges of the map. The feeling one gets is captured well in the liner notes:

The recording was done in one day at Bonello Studio in Berlin after a series of European shows where the trio worked on and developed the music. Rather than striving for the best takes of every piece, this session is meant to capture a snapshot of the live experience and energy of the band. Musically, they go deep into the tradition of free and jazz improvising whilst also pushing the physical and sonic limits of their instruments...

A fantastic late Autumn release.

 

Emmeluth- Håker Flaten- Filip - Hyperboreal Trio (Relative Pitch Records, 2025)

 

Axel Filip is a versatile Argentinian drummer who is also is living in Berlin, and the The Hyperboreal Trio is a collaboration with two well-known Scandinavian musicians - Danish saxophonist Signe Emmeluth and Norwegian bassist Ingebrit Haker-Flaten. Released in early summer on Relative Pitch Records, this trio recording has something for all creative music listeners.

 

Opening track, 'Stone Cold', displays from the start the raw/refined aesthetic of the trio. Emmeluth's tone is both restrained and biting, there is an edginess to her sound. Haker-Flaten's upright bass is strongly supportive, creating a full foundation, meshing with Filip's reflexive drumming. Their music often forms through short melodic bursts, Emmeluth ping-ponging between her instrument's registers, never staying too long in any one place, while Haker-Flaten and Filip keep the energy humming. 

 

Haker-Flaten is at the helm on the next track, 'Pressurized WC', playing an extended solo intro, eventually accentuated by the others. On 'Ahuyentado' Emmeluth begins the piece before the joined by Haker-Flaten and Filip with a syncopated, fragmented groove. The playing starts tight and grows even more so as the track progresses, and by the time they are third through, the whole music structure feels pulled to the extremes.

 

The album closes with 'Capiango', which begins slowly, a steadfast bass-line providing the structure for the saxophonist to hang her note from. The drums are soft, just brushes, as the two sketch out the tracks shape. It is a fitting closer to the recording, one that is relentlessly exploratory but at the same time full of shape and structure.