Trichotomy - Live with String Quartet

The Guardian 80

(Trichotomy)

Trichotomy, the 19-year-old Australian piano trio sometimes compared with Sweden’s EST for their smart mixes of jazz intricacy and seductive hooks, explored electronica with last year’s Known-Unknown album. With this free Bandcamp download from a 2014 Brisbane live show, they return to acoustic music in an imaginative string-quartet collaboration built around a specially composed suite. As jazz/classical crossovers go, the set vivaciously balances thematic eloquence with tight-knit polyphonic sophistication. Dancing About Architecture catches the essence with its hard-plucked pizzicato-string rhythms, flowing piano improv from Sean Foran, and all-comers finale. An Acre of Time merges a quietly ecstatic folk-ballad melody into wistful strings interludes and rocking riffs; Out of the Dark Sky is built on handclaps and bass-woodwork thrummings; Life Gets in the Way layers minimalist repeats, ghostly hymn-harmonies and nimble fiddle motifs. It might all be too loop-and-groove-based for some, but you have to know a lot about music to make it this well.