Six years on from their first album, “Customary Time” the hyperactive, intensely artistic Trio HLK return with the long-awaited follow-up, “Anthropometricks”, and a launch live performance at Kings Place. Like its predecessor, “Anthropometricks” is greater than a three-person effort… Function by Rob Adams

“With ‘Customary Time’ we had been discovering our voice; with ‘Anthropometricks’ we’re elevating the bar.”

Wealthy Harrold’s assured evaluation of Trio HLK’s two albums to this point is not any idle boast. The gap the group has travelled within the six years since they recorded the deeply spectacular “Customary Time” is critical, and the boldness in Harrold’s phrases is mirrored within the music on its terribly completed successor.

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Trio HLK includes Harrold on piano and synths, Ant Legislation on eight-string guitar and Wealthy Kass on drums and percussion. On “Customary Time” they had been joined by percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, whom they recognized – appropriately – as somebody who is likely to be up for the problem of taking part in their rhythmically intricate compositions.

Dame Evelyn returns on “Anthropometricks”, having toured with the group throughout the UK and Europe, and she or he has expressed her delight at being concerned, as have the 2 different visitors who lend their musicianship to the brand new album.

Cellist Natalie Clein and vocalist Varijashree Venugopal add an orchestral method and appreciable vocal elasticity respectively to Trio HLK’s palette of sounds. The cellist additionally joins Harrold and Legislation in taking up the position of doubling because the group’s bassist, though that risk didn’t essentially lie behind her invitation to play on “Anthropometricks”.

“With Evelyn, we had been attracted by her open-mindedness,” says Wealthy Kass. “We’d listened to her work with Fred Frith particularly and thought she would slot in with what we do, and it’s the identical with Natalie and Varijashree. I watched a video of Varijashree with B C Manjunath, the good mridangam participant, for example, and I instantly thought that this was somebody who may deal with the intricacies of the music and add her personal character.”

Intricacy and methods determine largely in Trio HLK’s compositions and but the uncooked materials they’re constructed from comes from the usual jazz repertoire. “Anthropometricks” itself refers to their re-composition of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie’s “Anthropology” and elsewhere on the album there’s a well-known affect of Miles Davis’ “All Blues”.

“Our music is plagued by metric modulations and metric methods,” says Ant Legislation. “So we thought “Anthropometricks” was an acceptable title.”

Wealthy Harrold concedes {that a} core a part of Trio HLK is about taking part in methods with the listener however on the identical time, they’re within the enterprise of speaking. Your correspondent can vouch for the flexibility of the melodic traces and fragments to shortly register and change into hummable in a means that is likely to be mentioned to hark again to the origins of TV’s The Previous Gray Whistle Take a look at.

Evelyn Glennie marvels on the obvious effortlessness with which Harrold, Legislation and Kass deal with their concerned and extremely developed compositions however behind this ease lies a number of work.

“After we’re not touring, we attempt to preserve the group ticking over by taking part in collectively in the identical room – we don’t rehearse by Zoom or Skype – for a good period of time at the very least as soon as a month,” says Harrold. With Kass based mostly simply outdoors Edinburgh, Harrold in Manchester and Legislation in London, this requires dedication and dedication.

“We’ll work on elements individually after which after we get collectively the thought is to change into snug with the time signatures and rhythmical figures, in order that every part turns into pure – like respiratory, actually,” Harrold provides.

In the end the thought is for each bit, as with music of kind of any model, to change into a journey for the listener from begin to end.

“Our compositions evolve by means of rehearsals, firstly, after which by means of efficiency,” says Kass. “We’ve performed collectively loads now, each as a trio and as a quartet with Evelyn, and there’s room for the music to develop and for brand spanking new concepts to be added by means of improvisation.”

“There’s a number of counterpoint in what we do,” provides Legislation, “and we’re very excited to be welcoming two new voices, in Natalie and Varijashree, into this expanded line-up. I believe that is going to open issues up and permit us to discover the music in higher depth. It’ll be actually fascinating to listen to the place we take the music collectively.”

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“Anthropometricks” is launched on Ubuntu Music at this time, Friday 15 March 2024, and might be launched at Kings Place, London on Friday 14 June as a part of Scotland Unwrapped – BOOKINGS