LRK TRIO - Urban Dreamer
Losen: LOS206-2
Evgeny Lebedev: piano; toy piano, sampler, accordion; Anton Revnnyuk: upright bass, piccolo bass, electric bass, vocals; Ignat Kravstov: drums, sampling pad, metallophone, percussion.
FX Quartet: Evgeny Subbotin: violin; Artur Adamyan: violin; Shamil Saidov: viola; Nikolay Solonovich: cello.
Varvara Revnyuk: vocal; Konstantin Safyanov: whistle; Bosse Savik: pedal steel guitar; JD Walter: vocal.
Recorded 2018 by Yakov Zakhavatkin at Cinelab Studio and Mosfilm Studio, Moscow
For several of the pieces on this set, the trio are augmented by additional instruments. But lest you forgot what a formidable sound just the three of them make, the opening track, ‘Urban Dreamer’, begins with a slow, simple arpeggio on piano before a deep bass creates a loping pattern and the scuttling drums chivvy the tune into something that feels like you ought to be able to dance to it, even if the rhythm is deliberately off kilter. There is a sense, in the way that this first track plays with competing metres that you think you are listening to one thing and suddenly realise that it is something quite different. A similar effect occurs in other trio tracks, ‘Journey for Three’ (track 6) and ‘Joy’ (track 7 – although this also features a whistled intro. The shifts of metre are, of course, part and parcel of the LRK Trio approach to music making, but it also helps to know that the pieces on this CD were composed in response to the trio’s first tour of Japan – with the centrepiece of the set being track 3 ‘ Lost in Tokyo’ (which is also the title of a live album released in Japan). This track begins with a babble of voices and sounds that could be horns and the tinkling toy piano that calls to mind a sense of traditional Japanese instruments and then the piano solo sets up a loop that slowly develops with recorded voices fading in and out before the piano hits a rich groove as it develops a pulsating solo. Keeping the reflection on their experience of the country, the CD closes with a version of a Japanese song from the 1920s, ‘Akatombo’ (composed by Kosaku Yamada), which combines Japanese pentatonic scale with the major scale, omitting 4th and 7th, sometimes used by Schumann. The piece is played as a straight jazz ballad, although the pedal steel guitar, in an odd way, provides a nod to the tunes origins (playing the theme and also bringing a sort of ‘non-jazz’ ambience to the music).
On other tracks, the compositions have a sophisticated elegance that combines a variety of musical styles. The trio even try their hand at a tune with words (sung in a rich baritone by J D Walter), 'Thoughts of...', track 5, providing a wistful lyric along the lines of a modern My Way. Solonovich’s passionate cello solo, from halfway into track 2 ‘Abyss’, carries a weight of Russian Romantic compositions while still retaining, in the ticking percussion and echoey piano a very contemporary jazz edge. The simple but completely captivating melody of track 4, ‘Clockwork Doll’ (introduced on bass and then played by piano) which develops with vocalese working with piano solos in ways that sound that both are completely improvised but combine seamlessly in ways that require much rehearsal.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Losen: LOS206-2
Evgeny Lebedev: piano; toy piano, sampler, accordion; Anton Revnnyuk: upright bass, piccolo bass, electric bass, vocals; Ignat Kravstov: drums, sampling pad, metallophone, percussion.
FX Quartet: Evgeny Subbotin: violin; Artur Adamyan: violin; Shamil Saidov: viola; Nikolay Solonovich: cello.
Varvara Revnyuk: vocal; Konstantin Safyanov: whistle; Bosse Savik: pedal steel guitar; JD Walter: vocal.
Recorded 2018 by Yakov Zakhavatkin at Cinelab Studio and Mosfilm Studio, Moscow
For several of the pieces on this set, the trio are augmented by additional instruments. But lest you forgot what a formidable sound just the three of them make, the opening track, ‘Urban Dreamer’, begins with a slow, simple arpeggio on piano before a deep bass creates a loping pattern and the scuttling drums chivvy the tune into something that feels like you ought to be able to dance to it, even if the rhythm is deliberately off kilter. There is a sense, in the way that this first track plays with competing metres that you think you are listening to one thing and suddenly realise that it is something quite different. A similar effect occurs in other trio tracks, ‘Journey for Three’ (track 6) and ‘Joy’ (track 7 – although this also features a whistled intro. The shifts of metre are, of course, part and parcel of the LRK Trio approach to music making, but it also helps to know that the pieces on this CD were composed in response to the trio’s first tour of Japan – with the centrepiece of the set being track 3 ‘ Lost in Tokyo’ (which is also the title of a live album released in Japan). This track begins with a babble of voices and sounds that could be horns and the tinkling toy piano that calls to mind a sense of traditional Japanese instruments and then the piano solo sets up a loop that slowly develops with recorded voices fading in and out before the piano hits a rich groove as it develops a pulsating solo. Keeping the reflection on their experience of the country, the CD closes with a version of a Japanese song from the 1920s, ‘Akatombo’ (composed by Kosaku Yamada), which combines Japanese pentatonic scale with the major scale, omitting 4th and 7th, sometimes used by Schumann. The piece is played as a straight jazz ballad, although the pedal steel guitar, in an odd way, provides a nod to the tunes origins (playing the theme and also bringing a sort of ‘non-jazz’ ambience to the music).
On other tracks, the compositions have a sophisticated elegance that combines a variety of musical styles. The trio even try their hand at a tune with words (sung in a rich baritone by J D Walter), 'Thoughts of...', track 5, providing a wistful lyric along the lines of a modern My Way. Solonovich’s passionate cello solo, from halfway into track 2 ‘Abyss’, carries a weight of Russian Romantic compositions while still retaining, in the ticking percussion and echoey piano a very contemporary jazz edge. The simple but completely captivating melody of track 4, ‘Clockwork Doll’ (introduced on bass and then played by piano) which develops with vocalese working with piano solos in ways that sound that both are completely improvised but combine seamlessly in ways that require much rehearsal.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
