~scape

scape20

		triosk meets jan jelinek
1+3+1 Sydney-based jazz trio Triosk and Jan Jelinek from Berlin have opened up a common equation. In musical terms, their joint album "1+3+1" does not make 5, but only one thing: sense. And the title reflects their production method: Jelinek mails selected samples and textures to Australia, Triosk use these as a basis for composition and recording, the enhanced material then returns to Berlin for Jelinek to finalise. But the mileage covered does not become audible. In fact, the origin of their music seems to be tied to the moment of synchrony, in this case "four different instruments multiplied by four different approaches make one sense", irrespective of causal or temporal interdependencies. This might make "Triosk meets Jan Jelinek" an alliance in entangled space (analogous to quantum physics), but it is the rarely audible magic of a resourceful crystalline musicality which fills the album with sophistication and clarity. Triosk and Jan Jelinek play together with eerie assurance and emphatic sensibility. An important feature of their music is the synchrony of events. Seemingly loose ends of separate figures join in a clear train of thought, conveying information not in succession, but simultaneously. In return, the listener is free to leave this complex world of sound and decide by himself to follow the bass line, piano or vibraphone, to to concentrate on drum patterns or decrypt electronic textures. Archetypal, dissolving jazz elements correspond to repetitive patterns not known to the genre, electronics and acoustics circle each other but remain conjoined. A double helix begins to form, a musical strand of DNA whose individual elements, taken by themselves, might not make sense. But in the right place and order, read out in their entirety, they define not only life itself, but (in their sequences) also its individual features. Two years ago Laurence Pike (24, drums), Adrian Klumpes (24, piano) and Ben Waples (22, double bass) formed Triosk to create a seamless connection between acoustic and electronic elements. Unsurprisingly, there are strong references to the Bill Evans Trio, as this pianist (deceased in 1980) set out to redefine the roles of a classical jazz trio, declaring drums and double bass equal lead instruments to the piano. Triosk take this further by playing with jazz-untypical approaches to composition, drawing on the structures and textures of minimalism and electronic music. When it comes to electronic production processes they are most interested in how sounds and ideas can overlap, reaching a highly organic interplay that is remarkably similar to the improvisation with other musicians. It was more or less by chance that Triosk came across the works of Jan Jelinek: again the principle of synchrony, of significant chance, seemed to play a major role. Pike was recording electronic music of the radio to collect samples for Triosk. The most suitable loops, the basis of some early compositions, turned out to hail from Jelinek's album "Loop-finding Jazz Records". This again was based on countless of samples taken from old jazz records. When Jelinek was touring Australia in 2001, they met for the very first time after a concert in Sydney. Jelinek was enthusiastic about other artists using his music in this way and, after getting to know the trio and their music, suggested a joint project with new material assembled especially for the album "1%2B3%2B1". Maybe geographical circumstances have something to do with the fact that Jelinek and Triosk approach a similar musical task from completely different directions as we all know, water drains off the other way Down Under, too. The cover image: "Blick zurück" ("look back") by Jörn Gerstenberg. The Berlin-based illustrator first came to attention with his architectural fantasies and mazy cityscapes in black and white. His wall murals adorn Berlin clubs as well as Mecklenburgian castles. Winner of countless awards and exhibitions in Istanbul, Reykjavik, Berlin and Cologne.