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The magical trio is back with Daniel Erdmann and Robin Fincker, who have been constantly reinventing themselves for fifteen years. This time, West Coast jazz serves as a backdrop for some high-flying explorations.

The title refers to Line For Lyons, composed in 1952 by Gerry Mulligan in honour of Jimmy Lyons, later director of the Monterey Jazz Festival, which became a veritable anthem of West Coast jazz. The three accomplices share a taste for the lively, fresh melodic lines played in unison (such as those in Lion's Den, virtuosic and serpentine, even reminiscent of certain bebop themes) and, above all, the art of improvised counterpoint as a playground. At its best, the album reconciles open playing, experimentation and great melodic and timbral sensuality. The flexibility of the three musicians' playing is quite astonishing. It gives the different pieces unpredictability and energy. It is sometimes abstract, sometimes arid, but it works.
The complementarity between Daniel Erdmann's tenor saxophone, harsh and torn, with its subtle timbre where the breath seems to prevail over the sound, and Robin Fincker's clarinet, mellow and nonchalant, elegiac, cements the group.
As for Vincent Courtois, he moves with magical ease from pizzicato to bowing, sketching melodic patterns that are much more than bass lines, while proving himself to be a soloist of thrilling intensity. In the astonishing Mulholland Coffee Break, his sustained, tense, plucked notes seem more like those of a violin than a cello. Then the theme rounds off its edges, arriving at Robin Fincker's laid-back sound. Each piece is full of surprises. The musicians are at the peak of their art.

Jean-François Mondot
Jazz Magazine

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