ILUGDIN TRIO- Reflection
Losen: LOS215-2
Dmitry Ilugdin: piano; Victor Shestak: double bass; Petr Ivshin: drums
Recorded July 2017 by Andrey Levin at Tonstudio Mosfilm, Moscow
Titles such as ‘Prelude#3’ (track 7), ‘Prelude#4’ (track 3), and ‘Nocturne’ (track 2) hint at the underlying classical themes that thread through these pieces. Not only do compositions call to mind elements of classical music, but the light and assured touch of Ilugdin has something of the classical pianist. In the liner notes, he says that the preludes are conceived as cinema scores, drawing inspiration from pieces that he composes for films or television. Each of the tunes has the feel of developing a narrative that could easily become accompanied by (or be used to accompany) moving images, and this is emphasized by the shifting tempo of the pieces. For example, the opening track ‘Transformability’, over the course of some 10 minutes, changes from 5 / 4 in its bouncing opening with vamping piano playing against the sprightly theme, into 11 / 4 and then down to a much more sedate coda that presents the chords with soft arpeggios and then into a burst of notes to close. What unites these disparate elements in the music is the strong underpinning of jazz, provided by the rich bass and some marvelous, subtle drumming. The rhythm section finds the swing in even the slowest or most overtly classical sections of the compositions, allowing the piano to shift between these different styles but always returning to the jazz roots of the trio.
There are, on Losen and other labels, several piano trios coming out of the Moscow scene at the moment, and each of these has developed their own sound. The Ilugdin Trio’s music works through merging the complexity of classical music composition with the immediacy of pop tunes and a highly melodic approach to rhythm in the jazz idiom. All the compositions here are originals but each piece has a feel of something that has a long and established history behind it, as if the band were playing standards that you hadn’t heard yet.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Losen: LOS215-2
Dmitry Ilugdin: piano; Victor Shestak: double bass; Petr Ivshin: drums
Recorded July 2017 by Andrey Levin at Tonstudio Mosfilm, Moscow
Titles such as ‘Prelude#3’ (track 7), ‘Prelude#4’ (track 3), and ‘Nocturne’ (track 2) hint at the underlying classical themes that thread through these pieces. Not only do compositions call to mind elements of classical music, but the light and assured touch of Ilugdin has something of the classical pianist. In the liner notes, he says that the preludes are conceived as cinema scores, drawing inspiration from pieces that he composes for films or television. Each of the tunes has the feel of developing a narrative that could easily become accompanied by (or be used to accompany) moving images, and this is emphasized by the shifting tempo of the pieces. For example, the opening track ‘Transformability’, over the course of some 10 minutes, changes from 5 / 4 in its bouncing opening with vamping piano playing against the sprightly theme, into 11 / 4 and then down to a much more sedate coda that presents the chords with soft arpeggios and then into a burst of notes to close. What unites these disparate elements in the music is the strong underpinning of jazz, provided by the rich bass and some marvelous, subtle drumming. The rhythm section finds the swing in even the slowest or most overtly classical sections of the compositions, allowing the piano to shift between these different styles but always returning to the jazz roots of the trio.
There are, on Losen and other labels, several piano trios coming out of the Moscow scene at the moment, and each of these has developed their own sound. The Ilugdin Trio’s music works through merging the complexity of classical music composition with the immediacy of pop tunes and a highly melodic approach to rhythm in the jazz idiom. All the compositions here are originals but each piece has a feel of something that has a long and established history behind it, as if the band were playing standards that you hadn’t heard yet.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
