Enterout Trio - Pink Ivory (Multikulti, 2010) ****

When the Cracow Klezmer Band stopped playing, I was sad, because I liked their combination of traditional music with jazz and classical, of the dark menace behind the joyful themes, the combination of melancholy and aesthetic beauty, combining entertainment with virtuosity. Now, the Enterout Trio, equally Polish, is here with the same ingredients, but making a different stew out of it, more jazz, rawer, more adventurous. No klezmer this time, but rhythmic, melodic and lyrical improvisations full of gloom and foreboding.

Piotr Mełech plays clarinet and bass clarinet, Adam Wróblewski plays cello, and Sebastian Grzesiak drums. With just the three of them, they alternate composed with fully improvised pieces. The first track, "Terminus", combines it all: a somewhat abstract intro evolves into a forward driven rhythm, with the cello's supportive drone setting the ideal backdrop for the clarinet's joyful theme followed by free improvisation, and when the rhythm slows down again, the drums goes and the clarinet and bowed cello converse in a modern classical way, then the cello goes forth on its own, full of vulnerable hesitancy and clear of tone, tearing the composition out of its pattern and pushing it deep into uncharted territory, yet without losing its inherent lyricism, and when the clarinet and drums return, they rejoin the - now mournful - theme. The improvised pieces vary between free improv and melodious creativity. The longest piece, "Księżycowy" ("Lunar"), is a gem, but then one of terror and madness, with a dark unison theme that develops into nightmarish improvisations and volumes of sound you wouldn't expect from a trio. A great album: excellent musicians and the coherence of their creative vision is even more impressive if you know that this is only their debut.

There are some clips to be found on Youtube, but the sound quality is so bad, that I don't share it.

© stef