Sophie Agnel - Three on a Match '2024

Tracks list

Recorded at Cafe OTO last year, 'Three on a Match' finds pianist Sophie Agnel
alongside bassist John Noble and drummer Steve Noble, filling her instrument
with ping pong balls, wooden blocks and tin cans to render it almost
unrecognisable. 

'Three on a Match' is a free improv record, for sure, but Agnel, Edwards and
Noble sound as if they've been liberated from the expectations usually put on
players to actually play recognisable sounds. The first half of 'Part 1' is a
fascinating inventory of the trio's thought process that deconstructs each
instrument. French vanguard Agnel has been working for some time to distance
herself from the piano's keyboard, figuring out different ways to play that
might provoke different sounds and techniques. Noble takes a similar approach
with percussion, surrounding his drum kit with bells, gongs and rubber balls to
wrench himself from usual rhythmic modes. When the music does take shape,
coalescing around Agnel's manic hits and Edwards' rubbery rhythms, it refuses to
bend into an identifiable form, even on the relatively more formal 'Part 2'.

This central section is the meat of the album, clocking in at 33 minutes, and
the trio get to show their chops here, with Edwards and Noble almost ricocheting
off each other while Agnel fractures bebop forms into chopped off recollections
that halt almost before they've started. These bursts of energy are balanced by
extended meditations that descend into near silence while the trio tease alien
screams and uneven rhythms from their modified set of tools. 

Tracklist:
1. Sophie Agnel - Part 1 (08:58)
2. John Edwards - Part 2 (33:12)
3. Sophie Agnel - Part 3 (06:48)

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