Trio HLK

“Anthropometricks”

(Ubuntu Music UBU0152CD)

Rich Harrold – piano & synth, Ant Law – eight string guitar, Rich Kass- drums, crotales, auxiliary percussion

with guests;
Evelyn Glennie – vibraphone, marimba, auxiliary percussion, Natalie Clein – cello, Varijashree Venugopal – voice

Released in March 2024 “Anthropometricks” is the second album release from Trio HLK, a group named for the initial letters of the surnames of its founding members.

The trio’s debut album “Standard Time” (2018) was said to “rework well-known standards, drawing on techniques from contemporary classical composition, weaving familiar fragments into complex, intricate new pieces.” Constituting rather more than the usual jazz contrafact these new compositions were credited to pianist Rich Harrold, with drummer Rich Kass adding his own drum parts. The album included guest appearances from the revered American saxophonist Steve Lehman and the esteemed classical percussionist Evelyn Glennie. The presence of these two performers added an extra air of credibility to the recording, with Glennie’s presence also helping to ensure that the album reached out to an audience beyond the usual jazz demographic.

For this latest release Glennie continues her involvement and appears on five of the album’s eight tracks. Cellist Natalie Clein appears on two pieces while vocalist Varijashree Venugopal sings on the title track, which also serves as the album opener.

Once again the compositions are credited to Harrold, with Kass again providing his own drum parts. The new recording sees the group refining the approach that they instigated on their debut, as the album liner notes explain;
“This music is about perception, specifically ambiguities of perception. The compositional principle that underpins the music is to pinpoint and inhabit liminal zones; to find and ride the biting point between opposing ways of hearing the same material. Rhythms strive for stability on shifting terrain. Patterns are almost established, but thwarted. Superimposed harmonic structures attempt to find unity. Each work is grown from fragments of a well known jazz standard. The resultant pieces are new, but the originals can be glimpsed within.”

I’m grateful to guitarist Ant Law for forwarding me a review copy of “Anthropometrics”. He’s the only member of Trio HLK whose work I was previously familiar with thanks to an excellent series of solo albums, “Entanglement” (2013), “Zero Sum World” (2015) and “Life I Know” (2018), these featuring a regular working quintet including Mike Chillingworth (alto sax),  Tom Farmer (double bass), James Maddren (drums) and either John Turville or Ivo Neame (piano). My review of “Life I Know” can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/ant-law-and-alex-hitchcock-same-moon-in-the-same-world

The 2022 release “Same Moon In The Same World” featured the duo of Law and saxophonist Alex Hitchcock in a series of collaborations with well known US based musicians who recorded their contributions remotely. This ‘lockdown album’ was a recording that I described as “ a highly coherent and convincing piece of work that Law and Hitchcock can be justly proud of”. The full review can be found here;

A more recent duo collaboration has been with the vocalist and lyricist Brigitte Beraha. The album “Ensconced” will be released on Ubuntu Music in August 2024 and I intend to undertake a full review of this recording in due course.

Others with whom Law has worked include saxophonists Emma Rawicz,  Tim Garland, Paul Riley and Alam Nathoo, trumpeter Henry Spencer, pianist Scott Flanigan,  bassists Matt Ridley and Ferg Ireland and drummers Ollie Howell and Marc Michel. He has also collaborated with the band Partikel, led by saxophonist and composer Duncan Eagles.

Law studied physics at Edinburgh University prior to a stint at the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston and his writing and tune titles are often inspired by scientific and mathematical principles. He is also published author, having written a book on the subject of the “Perfect Fourths” system of guitar tuning titled “Third Millennium Guitar; An Introduction”.

I know rather less about Law’s companions in Trio HLK. Rich Harrold’s website describes him as a “pianist, composer and educator” and reveals that he variously studied at the Royal Academy of Music, Yale School of Music and Leeds College of music. Trio HLK would appear to be his main creative outlet and the band was initially instigated as a vehicle for Harrold’s compositional ideas. Given the Leeds connection I assume that he is also the Richard Harrold credited with playing piano on “Zenna”, the 2023 album release from Wandering Monster, the Leeds based quintet led by bassist and composer Sam Quintana.

Trio HLK also appears to be one the main projects for the Scottish born drummer Richard Kass, who studied at Edinburgh’s Napier University. He also leads his own Drum Interpretations project, which has involved him in collaborations with pianist Tigran Hamasyan and the Indian percussionist BC Manjanuth. Others with whom he has worked include guitarists John McLaughlin and John Etheridge, bassist Arild Andersen and Snarky Puppy keyboard player Cory Henry.

Kass has also performed across other musical genres, among them pop, rock and classical and has also appeared on film and TV soundtracks. He also holds teaching posts at Edinburgh Napier and Glasgow universities.

Given the individual CVs of its members it should come as no surprise to learn that Trio HLK’s music is complex and sometimes challenging, the music exploring a wide variety of rhythms and a similarly broad range of dynamics. It’s music that borrows both from jazz and contemporary classical music, but I’m also reminded of some of the more complex and intellectual (and therefore the most interesting) forms of progressive rock, such as King Crimson and the various ‘Canterbury Scene’ bands.

Presumably inspired by the Charlie Parker / Dizzy Gillespie composition “Anthropology” the near eleven minute title track opens the album and sees the core trio augmented by the vocals of Varijashree Venugopal, an Indian singer and flautist who blends traditional Carnatic music with that of other genres, most notably jazz. Her mantra like wordless vocals are interspersed with, and integrated into, louder, rockier instrumental passages. It’s a wonderfully accomplished and expressive improvised vocal performance, integrating authentic Carnatic phrasing with soaring wordless passages that may remind jazz listeners of Norma Winstone. Rhythmically the music is fearsomely complex, with both drummer Kass and pianist Harrold rising superbly to the challenges. Venugopal also fulfils a rhythmic role, as does guitarist Law, who also delivers some stinging, technically demanding lead lines.

“fiVe” introduces the trio’s second guest, cellist Natalie Clein. Presumably inspired by Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” this piece represents something of a feature for Harrold, whose playing ranges widely through a complex, ever evolving musical landscape. Kass’ drums tick and whirr like a Swiss watch mechanism as Clein’s cello variously supplies melody, colour and texture, and also rhythm as she adds percussive bowing to the sounds of piano and drums in a busy and dramatic closing section. 

“Concertinas (for Bill)” is presumably a dedication to the late, great Mr. Evans and indeed the composition seems to allude to “All Blues”, from the Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue”, on which of course Evans plays. This piece features the emotive bowing of Clein, who exchanges melody lines with guitarist Law above a backdrop of piano and brushed drums. Using the famous “All Blues” motif as a base the music negotiates a series of varying moods and dynamics, with Glennie’s vibraphone providing an additional instrumental voice. But of the two guests it’s Clein who really stands out as she delivers a performance that combines a melancholic beauty with vigorous improvisational rigour.

Glennie also appears on the gentle “Prelude”, a kind of ‘chamber jazz’ piece featuring closely intertwined vibraphone, piano and guitar lines, with Law playing with a reined in intensity. Meanwhile Kass adds the sounds of mallet rumbles and cymbal shimmers.

The more forceful “Flanagan’s Lament” is the only piece to feature the core trio only. Presumably dedicated to John Coltrane’s one time pianist Tommy Flanagan it’s been suggested that this piece is loosely based on Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”. Intense and rhythmically complex this performance features some spirited interplay between the members of the group, and also some inspired individual moments too. Here, as elsewhere throughout the album, Kass’ drums almost appear to take the lead. He’s a highly individual stylist behind the kit who writes his own parts, these presumably based on his Drum Interpretations project.

Glennie returns for “Apostrophe (part 1), a short solo percussion introduction to the lengthier “Apostrophe part II”.
Glennie’s intro is delightful, its gentle chimes and shimmers evoking a magical fairyland. I’m not sure if “Apostrophe” is inspired by the Franz Zappa album of the same name but I suspect that the Thelonious Monk composition “Epistrophy” is the more likely reference point.
Anyway, “Part II” is an altogether more robust affair, albeit with Glennie continuing to shine and twinkle throughout, the bell like sounds of her percussion contrasting effectively with the metallic crunch of Law’s guitar. Again this is complicated stuff, with passages featuring chunky,  interlocking math rock rhythms interspersed with more reflective, occasionally ethereal, passages. Harrold solos at the piano during one of the albums’ most obvious ‘jazz’ sections, his brief duet with Glennie’s vibraphone recalls minimalism, and then we’re off into a knotty prog rock style episode. Trio HLK and their guests never stand still for long.

The album concludes with “Stellar”, the title presumably an oblique reference to the jazz standard “Stella by Starlight”.  As befits its new title this piece sees Trio HLK and Glennie reaching for the stars. A shimmering, atmospheric intro led by Harrold at the piano leads into a ferocious ‘prog rock’ section characterised by complex, but propulsive rhythms and topped by Law’s soaring, incisive guitar. Glennie is featured on marimba, an instrument that comes to the fore during the quieter interludes, but even these bristle with intent as Trio HLK progress through their usual range of stylistic dynamic shifts. Recurring guitar and piano motifs help to fuel the music and Law takes flight with some truly epic guitar soloing as rumbling, low end piano and Kass’ dynamic drumming combine to push his stratospheric guitar playing to new heights.

With its distinctive and highly complex rhythmic approach the music of Trio HLK doesn’t make for the easiest of listening, but for those listeners adventurous enough to climb on board their music is thoroughly immersive and often highly exciting. The trio approach the complexities of Harrold’s writing with a sophisticated gusto and the standard of the playing is exceptional throughout, with all three musicians delivering superb individual moments within a well defined collective framework. For all the ‘chops’ on show orthodox jazz soloing isn’t really what this group is all about.

The three guest performers all make superb contributions to the pieces that they are involved in and it would have been nice to heard more from all of them, and particularly from Venugopal and Clein, who only feature early on.

Despite the challenges “Anthropometricks” makes for absorbing and highly enjoyable listening. I’ve seen Ant Law perform live on several occasions in a variety of musical contexts but have yet to see Trio HLK, which is a pity. They have played in my part of the world but have somehow managed to slip through the net. They often perform as a quartet with Glennie and I gather that some shows have also featured Venugopal and Clein. Whatever the line up this is music that I would love to see being performed live.

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