Splashgirl Pressure

Splashgirl
Pressure
Hubro

Given the world is full of tasteful mid-tempo outfits in the jazz world these days, it takes a special confidence to break with the ECM, post-EST consensus that dominates the tone, if not always the substance, of the piano trio genre.

The sounds pursued on the third album by this Norwegian trio here is a kind of liminal, approximate jazz that shares some of the vocabulary but which appears to have more in common with the same sense of poise and timelessness that graces Talk Talk’s Spirit Of Eden.

Offering a useful mix of acoustic and electronic settings, Andreas Løwe (keyboards), Jo Myhere (double bass, drones) and Andreas Knudsrød (drums, percussion) make aesthetic and austere music with a distinctive edginess.

The dynamics of this record are as delicate as a translucent water colour painting, with notes deployed in thoughtful moves which value the deliberate arrangement of light and shade above any urgency of quick-fire soloing.

Guest spots include the subsonic, purring overtones of Martin Taxt’s tuba, creating darkly viscid drones against which Løwe’s piano twinkles like remote constellations. Guitarist Juhani Silvola’s clanging notes etch deep into the simple motif that makes up the post-rock ensemble-style epic, The Other Side.  

Elsewhere, repetitive glitch-pulses morph into expansive Philip Glass-like textures, whilst the title track sounds perhaps imagines the results had had John Barry and Karlheinz Stockhausen collaborated on a spy movie soundtrack.

Concluding with an abrupt, tumbling cliff-hanger, one is left desperately wanting to hear what happens next, which isn't a bad way to end an album after all.


You can buy this album here