Trio HLK: Anthropometricks

Editor's Choice

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Varijashree Venugopal (v)
Evelyn Glennie (vb, mba, perc)
Ant Law (8 -string g)
Natalie Clein (clo)
Rich Harrold (p, syn)
Rich Kass (d, perc)

Label:

Ubuntu

April/2024

Media Format:

CD, LP

Catalogue Number:

UBU0152

RecordDate:

Rec. 4-9 January 2023

Anthropometricks applies the same process that Trio HLK employed on their debut Standard Time. Shards of standards are slivered from the original then patterned and played around with (in every sense) to create a fresh newness. So ‘Concertinas (for Bill)’ may have bubbled free from ‘All Blues’ and be a backhanded compliment to Bill Evans, while ‘Flanagan’s Lament’ may allude to Tommy Flanagan chasing the ‘Trane across ‘Giant Steps’.

But whatever the entry point, the outcome is music of stunning energy, breath-taking virtuosity and rather surreally, great humour and wit. Because for all the technical jiggery pokery, all those me-tricks, the trio have a self-awareness and sense of fun that stops them disappearing up their own arch.

It also helps to have such wondrous guests. HLK’s rhythmic splittings lend themselves to Carnatic sub-divisions and Venugopal’s whirling vox fits snugly with HLK’s modus operandum.

Law somehow somersaults along to follow her lines and throws in some 8-string gymnastics of his own. And when in doubt he smacks down with Fripp-like industrial sized chords. The album’s only frustration is that there is not more of Venugopal. Clein’s cello likewise leaves you wanting more, Harrold’s lyrical piano matching her swoonsome theme as all heaven breaks loose on ‘Concertinas’.

There is, though, plenty of Glennie, whose glistening percussion fairy dusts through most of the songs, while her marimba is the perfect foil to Law’s effusions on the big shout finish of ‘Stella’.

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