The minute I heard this CD I knew it would be my next review – but it’s been a wait because it’s a grower – every time I start to put pen to paper a new musical avenue reveals itself so I release the pen and immerse myself in this wonderfully layered beautifully played music once more, the review on hold. Australia seems the place to be at the moment jazz trio-wise, having just recently review Aaron Choulai’s Ranu and now this, Variations from Australian trio Trichotomy. Living up to the philosophy that the trio for me at least is the ultimate expression of ‘man’s threefold nature’, the reviews are ablaze with comparisons to EST but they also accurately state that Trichotomy are no copy-ists – this is a contemporary trio masterpiece that runs the influence gamut from Satie like on Please, James.P Johnson, hear Chunk, to the current day triorioteers from Europe and America but with more space, silence, mood change and sonic variation.
Trichotomy are Sean Foran, piano, John Parker, drums and Pat Marchisella, bass and it’s difficult to choose a leader here – and this is their strength – they practice true trichotomy –all excelling as soloists but exceeding the sum of their parts. Adding guests on violins and sax on the romping EST type vehicle Start and trumpet plus deliciously understated electronics on the beautiful meditation on space, time and resonance that is Ascent, the band collectively explore so many more musical avenues than a typical CD of this genre usually does and with less of the repetition that some more overtly EST influenced outfits use. At times cinematic; Everything that Isn’t, grooving; Chunk, monumental; Island of the Sun, experimental; Labyrinth, Flamenco; The Unknown, swinging; Paddles, or classical; Please, Trichotomy manages to pull all this off without affectation or artifice, coaxing all their influences into an homogeneous offering to the angels of the muse. Because I’m an old romantic at heart and like to hear the space between instruments, John Parker’s Please and Foran’s Ascent are my standout tracks – every so often someone will write a theme that will entwine itself around your soul forever and Please is such a song.
Sometimes you have to remind yourself that you can pay for and download magnificent music like this in seconds without even leaving your chair. In these techno-days of ‘everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy’, Trichotomy’s Variations reminds us that some people still know how to play mechanically generated notes together and make them sound like they were caressed by the wind from an angel’s wings.
