Han-earl Park/Yorgos Dimitriadis/Camila Nebbia

Creative music at its freest is this lengthy Berlin-recorded trio session involving Argentinean tenor saxophonist Camila Nebbia, Korean-American guitarist Han-earl Park and Greek Yorgos Dimitriadis playing drums and electronics.

Distinctively staking out territory mid-way between free jazz and wave form emphasis the 10 tracks are subdivided into three suites, yet literally flow seamlessly one into another. Although a piece like “Niche Shift I” starts off quietly propelled by concentrated electronics with strained drones, metallic rubs and machine-like vibrations, by the time its four sections are completed the narrative has shifted to the sort of ecstatic improvising prominent throughout the disc.

These timbral elaborations are furious, but not frenetic. While Nebbia’s darker slurs, rocketing squeals and irregular flattement are distinctive in themselves, her high-energy expressions are linear enough to connect with the others’ output. Dimitriadis’ insertion of oscillating voltage provides a distant or upfront backdrop. However his kit work encompassing sandpaper-like rubs, bell ringing clanks, cymbal scratches and woody shuffle includes enough solid ruffs to maintain cadenced outlines.

Mercurial and often metallic in his strokes, Park’s single note stabs or resonating twangs often set up a contrapuntal response to reed note bending and drum patterning. But when it come to sequences such as “Niche Shift IV” and elsewhere, string flanges and dissonant frails that seem directed towards non-stop tone splattering are marshalled into balanced strums that become part of a layered exposition involving all three.

With upsurges to the unexpected as common as downshifts to singular expressions, this trio has created an electro-acoustic program with a plethora of unique ideas but without ever losing connective sonic threads.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Autopoiesis I 2. Autopoiesis II 3. Niche Shift I 4. Niche Shift II 5. Niche Shift III 6. Niche Shift IV 7. Autopoiesis III 8. Autopoiesis IV 9. Autopoiesis V 10. Autopoiesis VI

Personnel: Camila Nebbia (tenor saxophone); Han-earl Park (guitar) and Yorgos Dimitriadis (drums and electronics)