Customer Reviews

Triangle

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first two tracks are worth the cost of the disc. 'Pavane' in particular is amazing, with a theme that repeats and resolves in a flourish so ecstatic that I get body rushes just thinking about it. The recording quality is spectacular; with a fast enough amplifier and good speakers, the bass just hangs in front of you like a ghost; get right under those strings and FEEL that fretboard getting slapped up! The dynamic range is incredible and spikes out with stunning accuracy and life. The piano is done up with that huge, rich, chocolaty texture that makes you lust forever after the Eicher/Oslo connection. The drums are laid back in the mix and provide just enough firmament to support the interplay of piano and bass. The music is simple and the solos are aggressive and deep, a real mind melt between bassist and pianist. The record is a dream for music lovers and audiophiles alike.

Again an album from Europe/scandinavia of superb quality. Like the amazing E.S.T. and the Tord Gustavsen Trio albums this album is a absolute must. This album is not working to climax after climax like E.S.T. or has the Gustavsenpower of introvert sensibility. It's somewhere in between. It's more like Bobo Stensons Goodbye. But on that album the drumming is more boring. The drummer on The Triangle is almost never boring. Tsabropoulis and Andersen play also amazingly.

On the first and the third track we find good examples of why this album is so excellent. The music has a original possitive playfull sound, not like the pensive pieces of Tord Gustavsen, but it will move you anyway. The second track starts with a almost classical theme on the piano. The bass joins the piano subtile as does the drumming. The build up is sensative and breath taking. The fourth track is very pensive and ... ... The seventh track is more to the E.S.T. side of this comparison with sturdy constuction building up to climax.

A beautifull album!!! With marvellous playing of the Andersen, Tsabropoulis and Marshall trio. Good pianotrio's like this one seem all to come from Scandinavia. Why?

FJB/O!-music 2006

Every once in a while, I take a chance on a recommendation that seems as though I'd find it interesting. In the past few years I have become acquainted with the music of Tomasz Stanko and Tord Gustavsen via the press and through amazon recommendations. Those worked out well, so even though I had never heard any of these musicians before, I decided to take a chance on The Triangle which was repeatedly recommended by amazon on the basis of my past purchases.
Well, this CD is truly a rare find. I daresay I like it even more than the two CDs I own by pianist Tord Gustavsen. Intensely lyrical yet subdued, The Triangle is a piece of work that begs to be listened to again and again. The recording is of the quality that no one musician's contribution overshadows that of his fellows. You can distinctly hear everything that is being played. Though I like the entire CD, my favorites are: Straight; the exquisite cover of Ravel's Pavane; Saturday; and Lines, which is so evocative of Chick Corea.
If you are a fan of piano-based jazz trios and haven't yet heard this you owe it to your ears to check this out. And watch for price reductions. The price of this seems to fluctuate wildly between 13.99 and 17.99. I ordered mine when it dropped back to the lower price. Enjoy!

WOW! There's not enough stars to give for this stunningly beautiful music. This is quite possibly the most intensely beautiful music I've ever heard.

It's a wonderful recording in ECM's best tradition, but it's the music that's really alive here. It sparkles with spirit, and breath, and heart. WOW!

I cannot say enough about Arild Andersen. His compositions are superb, and he is truly a wondrous bass player! His melodic bass parts bring joy and surprise to this listener, but he is not only a brilliant bassist. His imagination and musical vision are very special indeed. To say it's is "a breath of fresh air" would almost be an injustice. This is way beyond fresh. This album is a breath of RARIFIED air.

I confess to having known little about Vassilis Tsabropoulos, but he is the real deal. Forget any notions of a Classical mismatch. His playing is superb, and everything he contributes here is stunning in conception and execution. John Marshall's drumming is perfect for this music. His contributions are so beautifully understated; words like resonance and empathy seem appropriate.

I wouldn't want to change anything about this very special record. I am very fond of many great piano trios - past and present, but THIS one is among the very best I've had the pleasure of hearing, and this album is one of the most beautiful and incredible things I've ever heard. Did I say WOW?

NOTE: This recording is NOT "discontinued by the manufacturer" as stated, but is sadly the victim of someone somewhere who can't be bothered to make it available. It IS available in other parts of the world, and it's a shame that you can't buy it here at Amazon.com at a reasonable price.

TRIANGLE is the second collaboration between pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos, bassist Arild Andersen and drummer John Marshall (the first was Achirana, which I haven't heard yet as I write this review). Although Arild Andersen is sometimes credited as bandleader by virtue of alphabetical order at least, it is really Tsabropoulos who holds this album together with a steady stream of gentle melodies that some have compared to Bill Evans.

The three players here obviously have considerably technical proficiency, but this album proved far too low-key for my taste. Nearly all of the nine tracks are cast from the very same slow, pensive mold without any real fire to speak of. In a couple of his solos one can hear Andersen grunting, but there's nothing in the music itself to suggest such effort or passion. Marshall stays very much in the background, playing at low dynamic and relegating even a role as basic timekeeper to Tsabropoulos. "European Triangle" adds some knotty complexity to the album, but mostly the music is just rather too pretty and unthreatening for anyone expecting the horizon-widening music of some of Tsabropoulos's other efforts.

I'm crazy about Tomasz Stanko, Keith Jarrett, and ECM in general, but like Tord Gustavsen's Being There, I'm not moved by this. It's as if it's trying too hard to be ethereal and beautiful. Maybe someday I'll see something in it that I don't see now, as I did with Paul Motian Trio.

I don't know.

If it were, it would be purveyed by ECM.

And the artist would likely be either Tord Gustavsen or Vassilis Tsabropoulos, a pair of strikingly, heartbreakingly beautiful pianists.

What would too beautiful jazz sound like?

Would it be cloying?

Static?

Superficial?

Admittedly, this disc could be accused of suffering from all the above mentioned musical maladies.

But it doesn't.

Why not?

It has enough musical spine, enough tension-release, to ensure that it doesn't fall into cliché, stultifying repetition, or static boredom.

What does it sound like?

To me, it's like you're sitting in a gazebo with your current squeeze, preferably in the South of France, but if not there in Santa Barbara, CA.

The Santa Ana winds are blowing.

Heck.

Let's just say you're at the Biltmore, all expenses paid, by whom, I don't know--does it even matter?--an Anchor Steam in hand, or, better yet, a Chimay Grand Cru, your gal clutching an expensive shiraz--the surf steadily offering up long tubes from a west-by-northwest swell (hey, I don't call myself longboardjazzer for nothing), Hammonds Reef going off in extraordinary fashion, glimpsed, from the corner of your left eye as you're sitting on the Biltmore patio, as it will every half-decade or so.

Get the picture?

No, you probably don't, being neither a surfer nor a beer connoisseur.

But no matter. The word picture conjures what's happening to all but the brain dead.

Enter this fabulous piano trio.

Shimmering, legato pianisms.

Subtle bass bombs.

Quiet drum pyrotechnics.

And you're there, soaking it all in.

That's what too beautiful jazz sounds like.

Dig?