Description

Essentially an Oregon album under a different name, Trios/Solos consists mainly of Ralph Towner originals culled from the groups Vanguard sessions. The opening Brujo is anchored by Towners twelve mighty strings and the late Collin Walcotts tabla stylings, leaving a winding crevice through which Glen Moore works his whimsical bass. Noctuary features Paul McCandless on oboe, soaring loosely through the Towner/Moore fulcrum before the trio ties itself into a tightly improvised not. The Bill Evans tune Re: Person I Knew stands out in a gorgeous rendition. Towner doubles on piano and 12-stringlaying down a sound that would soon crystallize into his classic ECM album Solsticeas Moore lurks in the background. Ravens Wood continues the same configuration, only this time with nylon, darkening its pastoral modality with nocturnal visions.

Despite the intimate wonders of these trios, the albums titular solos abound with some of its most focused and furthest-reaching moments. Moores A Belt Of Asteroids is a curious one at that. Seeming at first out of place in its present company, it carefully peels open the albums outer layers with every twang. The remainders feature Towner doing what he does best. Take the compact Suite: 3×12, a carefully thought out composition in which his palpable picking and love for harmonics shines through at every turn, not to mention his consistently progressive energy. The last of the three movements is more aggressive in its attack and wound around a precise rhythmic core. Winter Light is heavily steeped in 6-string nostalgia, lonely but content in its solitude. 1×12 is, by contrast, a run along a blazing trail. Lastly, we have Reach Me, Friend, a snapshot of expectation that breathes with audible resolve.

As the driving force behind the album, Towners technique is mellifluous as usual, forging an aerial sound that constantly surveys the untouched lakes shimmering below like mirrors in the brilliance of his execution. Despite the lush performances throughout, the imagery is all so viscerally sere. And while there is no danger in what we see, there remains a threat unseen, lingering just beyond the horizon, quelled only by the arrival of the morning sun