Label: Intakt Records, 2024

Personnel - Stephan Crump: acoustic bass; Kris Davis: piano; Eric McPherson: drums.

The Borderlands Trio, a unit co-led by resourceful musicians and established figures in the creative music world such as bassist Stephan Crump, pianist Kris Davis, and drummer Eric McPherson, is adept at amorphous, often knotty musical settings that sound natural to the ear. Their third release, a double album called Rewilder, is marked by assured improvised frameworks built with freedom and patience, and with a penchant for nuance and subtlety. Drawing spontaneously from a wide musical palette that spans avant-garde jazz, modern classical, experimental chamber music, and even world fusion, the trio crafts mesmerizing sonic tapestries.

The opener, “Cyclops Mountain”, starts off languidly, immersed in a rubato introduction before delving into intriguing grooves and motions. Piano motifs succeed one after the other, and folk melodies appear here and there over hazy bass walks and rattling percussion. “Axolotl” follows suit, initially somber and contemplative - centered on bowed bass and prepared piano with a vibing, percussive trait - before transitioning into melodic and harmonic clarity.

Spanning over 18 minutes, “Monotreme” showcases bemusing and fearless interplay. Bass and drums take their way, riding avenues with more or less speed and impetus, ending up in a swinging buoyancy over which Davis propagates thrilling cascades, prominent pulsations, and oblique melodic invention. On the heels of a compelling arco bass statement and moments of fun piano activity, the trio concludes on a symbiotic groovy note. “Tree Shrimp” closes the first disc, infusing an intrinsic hip-hop vibration in the beat, irresistibly funky bass imprints, and wooden xylophone-like sounds via prepared piano, before a decisive swinging flight toward abstraction.

The second disc comprises three large-canvas improvisations delivered with control and authority. The tense pulsations of “Echidna” stand out, forming a delightfully percussive bubble that keeps you trapped in its confines. Rewilder provides a thrilling listening experience filled with surprises and musical liberation.

Favorite Tracks:
02 (CD1) - Axolotl ► 04 (CD1) - Monotreme ► 02 (CD2) - Echidna

Label: Intakt Records, 2021

Personnel - Stephan Crump: acoustic bass; Kris Davis: piano; Eric McPherson: drums.

The Borderlands Trio is made of three inventive musicians - Stephan Crump on double bass, Kris Davis on piano and Eric McPherson on drums - who explore freely without any genre constraints or forcing moods. Their new outing on Intakt, Wandersphere, is a double disc with four improvised pieces recorded in New York during the 2020 pandemic. The group expands views with purely instinctive spontaneity, assuring that their music flows even more naturally (no editing) than on their debut album Asteroidea (Intakt, 2017).

“Super-Organic” quietly gets shape through clever cymbal layouts, relentless bowed bass and a gorgeously atmospheric pianism that benefits from Davis’ attentive preparation of her instrument. The piece segues into some ostinato-driven passages before entering a magical ballroom where mutable grooves join both the cascading and entangling piano. The trio accomplishes wonders and everything fits in the right place, even when Crump’s fingers glide in exploration of higher registers with Davis assuming the bass lines. The gamelan-like sounds of the prepared piano contribute a strong African feel to the concluding vamp.

Crump says: “the goal of the trio is to offer and receive simultaneous, relinquishing as much ego as possible.” This spirit is felt throughout the album, and the 41-minute “Old-Growth” has a lot to be discovered, evolving from being lyrical to consciously vague and exploratively jazzy to offering hypnotic cadences that could have been inspired by or be transported to electronic music. After insinuating a lopsided swing over which Davis delivers some pure jazz phrases, there’s this intimate arco bass expression, surrounded by exotic sounds, that progresses with spiritual development.

“An Invitation to Disappear” conveys this inescapable sense of being trapped in a bubble of solvent molecules, but soon veers to a kinetic, rock-inspired thrust, probing grooves that are as much complex as they are relatable and assimilable. There is tremendous tension at certain times, which are slightly eased on the buoyant “Possible Futures”, another copious outpouring of ostinatos, grooves and other ideas that fully cohere.

Imaginative and inspiring, the Borderlands Trio extemporizes with grand musical gestures and sweeping elegance.