aaamusic | On 24, Jan 2011

Australian Jazz trio Trichotomy returns following their critically acclaimed debut ‘Variations’ with “The Gentle War.” Leaving Foran’s piano compositions as the focal point of each track, the album seems sadly directionless and fails to come together by its close.

‘Chase’ is a nice enough opener showing creativity as much as is possible on a solely instrumental album. There is a strong jazz influence here but rather than just reverting to what one might expect of a jazz song there is a definite rock sound here too. It is an unexpectedly playful track that has melody at the forefront yet sets the tone for the self-indulgence that is yet to come tracking at over five minutes long.

It would be churlish to say that this album has nothing to offer yet a track by track seems to be just as unuseful as in honesty there is not a lot to separate each track from one another to those who are uninterested in the genre. Rather than taking notice of its unusually bouncy opener there is a sad inevitability about what follows with improvisation seemingly having more merit than anything that could be described as inspirational. ‘Blues For The Space,’ for example, is unnecessarily long and although it progresses it is hard to describe exactly where the song ends up. It is difficult to dismiss something that I know very little about, however, I doubt that “The Gentle War” will serve as the manifesto for a new piano jazz movement; strictly for existing fans.

Author: Josie Payne