UK Jazz News

Jasper Høiby’s Three Elements – ‘Earthness’

It’s been five years since the great piano-bass-drums trio Phronesis’ last recording appeared, but they had such a strong presence it still feels like there is a gap their next release might fill.

This isn’t it, but a new set featuring newly London-resident bassist Jasper Høiby in company with two young players making a mark in the capital, Noah Stoneman on piano and Luca Caruso on drums, is maybe as close as we’re going to get.

It’s not intended as a Phronesis Mark II – and Høiby indicates that the “Three Elements” tag will extend to other trio line-ups. But it certainly has many of the virtues of the Phronesis of old, as well as affirming the bassist’s deep love of the piano trio. Piano and bass often double the melody lines on the longer tracks. There are perhaps fewer rhythmic swerves in the music, but the ensemble is rhythmically supple, as any band featuring Høiby is bound to be, the piano improvisation fleet and sparklingly inventive. The drums, while not as compulsively intense as Anton Eger often likes to be, are alert to every twist and turn of the collective trajectory.

That is especially evident on half a dozen brief improvisations – each a minute or so of playful invention – that frame the album. Høiby’s access to a London studio encouraged an experimental approach and on hearing these efforts he thought to use them, interspersed with more composed pieces, to leaven the mix on a full-length recording.

It’s a slightly tantalising approach, with each more substantial statement preceded by an extempore morsel, an amuse bouche perhaps. But the different moods they set are pleasing, and hint at the potential of this threesome to move into new territory.

The four longer pieces, all written by the bassist, include two – the title track and Never Forgotten – previously heard with Hoiby’s trio Planet B, where Josh Arcoleo’s saxophone imparted a very different flavour to the sound. The latter opens out here into an extended flight for Stoneman, underpinned by finely embroidered percussion and pared back bass. The ticklishly tricky groove of Phronesis favourite Love Song is also revisited to good effect.

It’s a thoroughly absorbing set, which manages to sound well-realised while also giving the impression of an investigation in progress – with the promise of much more to come from this new phase of Høiby’s work.

Jon Turney writes about jazz, and other things, from Bristol. You can find him on WordPress and Bluesky.

Share this article:

Advertisements

One Response

  1. We are excited to hear this project live, when the Three Elements trio play at World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens in London, in January 2023.

Post a comment...

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Wednesday Morning Headlines

Receive our weekly email newsletter with Jazz updates from London and beyond.

Wednesday Breakfast Headlines

Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter