PHRONESIS - Life to Everything
EDITION RECORDS CD EDN 1050
Jasper Høiby: double bass; Ivo Neame: piano; Anton Eger: drums
The beautifully tight pizzicato from Høiby's acoustic bass that introduces this live album with Urban Control, tells of excitement to come. The stimulation may arise from the fact that a new approach has seen each member of the trio contributing equally to the writing, three tunes each, whereas Jasper used to write everything for the group.
Phronesis were good from the very beginning, but the trio has always seen fit to develop and that development is evidenced in the performance on this album.
Eger's driving style and the vibrant distinctions which contribute so much to the promised exhilaration are set aside momentarily, as track 4 opens with a poetic composition, Song For Lost Nomads, from the pen and piano of Ivo Neame, a piece of writing that encompasses all of the trio's metrical ingenuity and innovation as they each demonstrate, but as one. Nine Lives is feverish, introduced by abrupt phrasing suggesting uncertainty, yet as this brusque vernacular continues at an ever faster pace, deliberation becomes apparent and the tautness of the phrasing throughout its melodic structure becomes a searing burn-out.
The album is very finely recorded, each instrument sounding lucid and snappy and this is particularly important to a live recording where extraneous sound may be a mask to the subtle changes and interplay between the instruments.
This is a terrific album in every way possible – go there.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
EDITION RECORDS CD EDN 1050
Jasper Høiby: double bass; Ivo Neame: piano; Anton Eger: drums
The beautifully tight pizzicato from Høiby's acoustic bass that introduces this live album with Urban Control, tells of excitement to come. The stimulation may arise from the fact that a new approach has seen each member of the trio contributing equally to the writing, three tunes each, whereas Jasper used to write everything for the group.
Phronesis were good from the very beginning, but the trio has always seen fit to develop and that development is evidenced in the performance on this album.
Eger's driving style and the vibrant distinctions which contribute so much to the promised exhilaration are set aside momentarily, as track 4 opens with a poetic composition, Song For Lost Nomads, from the pen and piano of Ivo Neame, a piece of writing that encompasses all of the trio's metrical ingenuity and innovation as they each demonstrate, but as one. Nine Lives is feverish, introduced by abrupt phrasing suggesting uncertainty, yet as this brusque vernacular continues at an ever faster pace, deliberation becomes apparent and the tautness of the phrasing throughout its melodic structure becomes a searing burn-out.
The album is very finely recorded, each instrument sounding lucid and snappy and this is particularly important to a live recording where extraneous sound may be a mask to the subtle changes and interplay between the instruments.
This is a terrific album in every way possible – go there.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
