Unknown Rivers

Album review

Bassist and composer Luke Stewart is busy: he leads the free jazz group Exposure Quintet, is one-fifth of the collective Irreversible Entanglements, plays electric bass in the experimental rock duo Blacks' Myths, and performs in several other groups as well. So, it's a good thing Stewart finds time for his excellent Silt Trio: their 2022 release The Bottom impressed, and Unknown Rivers is a fine follow-up.

Drummer Trae Crudup—Stewart's partner in Blacks' Myths—appeared on Silt Trio's initial release, 2020's No Trespassing. Here, Crudup plays on the album's four studio cuts, while Chad Taylor—who drums on The Bottom—plays on three live tracks.

Crudup and Stewart lay down an off-kilter groove on "Seek Whence" as tenor saxophonist Brian Settles riffs on the underlying pattern. His playing, full of subtle details, remains compelling throughout the piece; there is tension in his artful restraint.

"The Slip" opens with martial and funky drum rhythms. Stewart joins in with a deep, fat-toned bass line that he expands upon throughout the track. Settles spaces out stately sax runs, letting silences create anticipation. 

The live portion of the album begins with Chad Taylor's solo on "Amilcar," where he dazzles with deft skitter and rumble. Stewart enters the rhythmic matrix with a descending bass pattern, and soon after Settles feels his way into the music. At times, his tenor playing evokes the warm lucidity of John Coltrane.

Stewart's bass propels the uptempo title track. Taylor provides a steady pulse and inventive interjections as Settles mixes long-held notes, emotive phrases, and insistent riffing. The piece is a good example of this group's appealing deployment of catchy, repetitive figures in a free jazz context.  © Fred Cisterna/Qobuz