Vein/Andy Sheppard - Vein Plays Ravel

The Guardian 80

(Double Moon/Challenge Records)

A second, but markedly different, 2017 release for the sophisticated, classically inspired but viscerally powerful Swiss piano trio Vein, featuring virtuosic siblings Michael and Florian Arbenz on piano and drums, and elegant double bassist Thomas Lähns. This set’s inspiration is Maurice Ravel, and the UK’s Andy Sheppard joins the A-list of Vein-collaborating saxophone stars with a performance of typically throwaway guile – fragile on an intro to the famous Bolero theme, muscular and bustling in its free-jazzy finale. Le Tombeau de Couperin develops as a glittering, gently looping piano motif that slowly stretches over an emerging drums groove, becomes a sublime pizzicato bass reverie, and finally ascends to a percussion tumult reminiscent of another European supertrio, Phronesis. Lähns explores the Violin Sonata with a cello-like grace, and the 16-minute Boléro is a tour de force of rhythm-layering minimalism compounded by Sheppard’s improv with a sax-and-brass quartet. Elsewhere, 5 O’Clock Foxtrot is a canny conversation of glancing piano figures and hip-hop patterns. Vein go from strength to strength.