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Kali Trio — Loom
(Ronin Rhythm RON 026, 2021, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2021-06-23

Loom Cover art

Kali Trio is a Swiss group that occupies a stylistic niche somewhere between jazz, rock, and electronic music. Nicolas Stocker (drums), Urs Müller (guitar), and Raphael Loher (piano) produce music that has some similarities with fellow countrymen Sonar, with reliance on repeated rhythmic patterns and limited harmonic scope, though the comparison shouldn’t be taken too far. Kali Trio has distinct elements of post-rock in the mix, spicing up their repetition with dramatic crescendos or even sudden crashes. Loom consists of four tracks ranging from eight to almost 15 minutes, and one of their techniques is to start out with a quick but quiet rhythmic pattern on drums that goes along with a corresponding pattern on piano, often highly modified electronically. The guitar will sometimes contribute atmospheric sound effects and sometimes join in with its own pattern. This will be repeated for a certain amount of time, going through subtle changes and varying treatments. Then at some point, they’ll change it up, with the drums going to a more insistent feel and guitar making more aggressive noises. While there are harmonic centers, there’s nothing I’d call a melody or chord progression. At times more seems to be going on than could be produced by the three in real time, as whether that’s done via looping or overdubs I can’t say — either way, it sounds great, with a fresh and distinctive style. The rather minimal material works well, and is quite entertaining as long as you’re not looking for epic harmonies or stop-start technical exercises.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Kali Trio

More info
http://roninrhythmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/loom

 

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