Label: Rattle Records, 2025

Personnel - Darren Pickering: piano, synth, modular; Heather Webb: guitar; Pete Fleming: bass; Jono Blackie: drums.

New Zealander keyboardist Darren Pickering leads his Small Worlds quartet in a third volume of music comprising nine originals. There’s cohesive ensemble work in Three, but the factor ‘surprise’ is often missing, even if the quartet tends to color tender moments with a declarative lyricism.

“Green Blinking Light” helps setting the tone for the album with heartening gestures. A smooth, slightly intriguing sequence of a four-note piano riff materializes with rhythmic accentuations popping up in unexpected places. “What If” is an emotionally charged ballad etched with low-key modular synth warps, a softly brushed backbeat, reverb-drenched guitar, and a clear piano narrative. This unequivocally jazzy harmonic movements are dropped in “Soft Life”, where a metronomic pulse, ambient-electronic spatiality, and dreamlike fantasy are circumscribed by a regular, spasmodic beat.

Jono Blackie’s crisp, time-keeping drumming gives a contemporary feel to the E.S.T.-like “Hjartdal”, where a delicate melody and simmering spontaneous chords put in a claim for resolution. In the 4/4 ballad “Folly”, we feel warmth at play as the music acquires a fusion vibe through Heather Webb’s hot-wired guitar. Pickering then takes center stage, operating atop Pete Fleming’s groovy bass slides and Blackie’s pragmatic drum fluxes.

The group struggles with some ideas, and the material occasionally falls into predictable vibes and spaces. “Randall” is one of those numbers in need of nuance, despite an ultimate riff-driven passage rockified by the guitarist. Also, the swinging “Taylor Time” doesn’t provide special moments, but I still enjoyed the trade bars between the drummer an the rest of the band.

Alternating between soulful and aloof, Three would have benefited with more intense passion and perhaps fewer polished surfaces.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Green Blinking Light ► 02 - What If ► 05 - Hjartdal

Label: Rattle Records, 2022

Personnel - Darren Pickering: piano, modular synth, iPad; Mitch Dwyer: guitar; Pete Fleming: bass; Mitch Thomas: drums.

New Zealander keyboardist and composer Darren Pickering leads his Small Worlds project - a quartet with guitar, bass and drums - in an intimate session recorded between October and December 2021. The group churns out some interesting ideas while keeping cool introspection in practice, opening the record with the delicately woven “Simple Ballad”. The title may give you a hint about space and pace, but doesn’t tell you about the sizzling sound of tightly brushed cymbals, melodies that stir emotions, and the compatible combination of keys and strings. Pickering and guitarist Mitch Dwyer indicate they know exactly what their function is within the song.

“Moody 7” is an iterative exercise in seven that makes me think of a crossing between E.S.T. and Radiohead. The jazzy rock flavors of these bands are also expressed on “Ixtapa”, whose symmetric texture is garnished with tasteful electronic elements. Influenced by other styles, Pickering infuses a classical feel and short-lasting polyphony on “In the Know(er)”, a piece that, in due course, drops the 4/4 tempo to hold a steady triple feel.

Some tunes would benefit from a less polished production. Such is the case with “Klazmus”, which compensates with an energy-packed solo from Pickering. “Standing”, co-penned by the bandleader and the multi-instrumentalist Andrew McMillan, sets relaxed unison lines against an exciting rhythmic drive that brings to mind Aaron Parks Little Big. The solid interplay asks for more individual explosion here. Although that doesn’t happen, the group takes leave by spreading out feel-good vibes on “Strega Tone Poem”, where Pickering’s modular synth melody works as a recurring theme.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Simple Ballad ► 02 - Moody 7 ► 03 - In the Know(er)