Track I. recorded by Lukas Lohner, September 11th, 2018.
Tracks II. and III. recorded by Stefan Deistler, November 9th and December 9th, 2018.
Recorded at Loft Cologne.
Mixed and mastered by Roy Carroll, March 2019.

REVIEWS

Returning to recent Creative Sources releases, Piano Trialogues involves three different trio recordings, i.e. Nicola L. Hein (prepared guitar) & Etienne Nillesen (extended snare drum) with three different pianists for three tracks (recorded respectively in September, November & December of 2018, and appearing in chronological order) totaling well over an hour: It's an interesting approach — & I'd thought originally that the album used three pianists simultaneously — & involves a lot of extended technique, such that instruments are rarely individually recognizable. Of course, I've been following Hein for a while here, so let me just mention his trio album Digressions (discussed September 2018, i.e. around the time of these recordings) with Kriton Beyer, and also his solo album released this year on Shhpuma, The Oxymothastic Objectar.... I didn't end up discussing the latter, but the deconstruction of "guitar sound" is analogous to that employed on Piano Trialogues (although, obviously, more to the fore). Nillesen was new to me, though, and as the credit suggests, his playing involves a lot of buzzing, etc. Pianists also work mainly inside & via various preparations, with the first to appear, Eve Risser (first mentioned here in September 2013 around En corps), being a staple of "free jazz" discussion more widely: The track with Risser does make a strong impression — with a variety of rumbling, scuttling, squeaking, buzzing & clunking merging & building into some sort of mysterious pulse that almost suggests a groove. As do the other trios, it also involves a variety of evocations from industrial train yards to swelling squeals.... The next pianist is Magda Mayas, whom I've featured most often here (starting with Flock by Great Waitress in May 2014), and she likewise doesn't disappoint: Low grinding vibrations shift into gamelan-esque exchanges, back into electronic feedback & static, again pulsing into a pause yielding more mysterious grinding & evocations of wind. The track also maintains a taut intensity, ominous from the start, fading toward the end.... The final pianist to appear was new to me, though, Marta Warelis: Much of the track is the most "pianistic" of the three (& this is, barely, the longest track as well), such that there's also a sort of delicacy that emerges from springy tinkling overtaking percussive clunks, although it also comes to involve a slow howl.... Overall, there are many appealing sounds & combos on Piano Trialogues, then, but the results also seem to remain more exploratory than major statements. So, I'm not really sure what to make of the approach to record an album with three different pianists, or what it says about the future of a Hein-Nillesen duo... they tend to function more as accompaniment here (if one can even be sure). I did enjoy the music, though. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts