Two very different albums linked by Kit Downes, and highlighting the pianist’s remarkable versatility and responsiveness as collaborator.

The acclaimed Enemy trio (pictured below)launched 10 years ago with a manifesto of “fierce intensity” and this live recording from a 2024 Basel residency continues to deliver on that promise.

The first three tracks are a continuous set, the loose opening of ‘Monks’ belying the underlying collusion of Petter Eldh’s bass weaving around Downes’ increasingly solid piano. The music proceeds through ‘Fiend Bypass’ into the urgency of ‘Faster Than Light’, a nod to their eponymous debut, driven by stabbing bass and building to a climactic close.

It’s a breathless ride, with James Maddren’s brilliant drumming developing from cleverly understated pulse to invigorating polyrhythmic onslaughts while Downes and Eldh teasingly slip in and out of the thematic content. Maddren also shines in his unhurried solo for ‘Liability’, nuanced permutations intelligently emphasised over bombast before careful piano and insistent bass steer him to a close. It’s a more nuanced number reflecting the development of the players since those early recordings and it seems only regrettable that Fiend offers a mere 32 minute snapshot of Enemy’s current form.

The nine tracks of Newfoundland Tristesse, by contrast, run to 42 minutes of exquisite and original music. Originally conceived as a lockdown duo by Swiss vocalist Lucia Cadotsch and German 7-string guitarist Ronny Graupe, the addition of fellow Berlin resident Downes on piano adds both texture and creativity to their songs.

The album opens with Broadway standard ‘Some Other Time’, stretched and sketched by Cadotsch’s languid vocals, with impressionistic piano and low-slung guitar arranged around the song’s architecture and mood. Other standards are similarly reclaimed by deeply atmospheric dis-arrangements, and the usual awkwardness of piano/guitar collaborations is perfectly avoided by Downes and Graupe’s deft interweaving. Even more impressive are the five original songs with Graupe’s tunes set to Cadotsch’s words – the melodic structures effortlessly catch the rhythms of speech, while the music consistently shifts into unexpected thematic directions.

There’s a freshness to everything, emanating from both Cadotsch’s remarkably unforced voice and the almost playful elegance of Downes and Graupe’s interaction, making even well-trodden standards like Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Stardust’ emerge as if thought out anew.