Italian pianist and composer Filippo Deorsola puts together a trio with bassist Jonathan Ho Chin Kiat and drummer Ap Verhoeven that is a stew combining flavors of Thelonious Monk, The Bad Plus and Brad Meldau on this wide ranging album.
The title comes from a series of quick in-and-out free wheeling improvs, with some frisky and loose bass/drum work on the two parts of “Towards A Lexicon (Part 1)” with some ricocheting piano work on “(Part 2)” while the third band composition of “Lexicon 1” has everyone scrambling around in whirling wonder.
The rest of the pieces have the trio in a herky jerky mood with some inquisitive direction changes on “F.S.A” while Deorsola’s rich chords darkly dance around the shifting pulses on “Coralli”. Verhoeven rocks hard while piano and bass jab like middleweights on “Image Temps” with intuitive brush work veering around the swerving ivories on “Image Movement”. The leader gives a rich and introspective intro on “Where Do Adults Come From?” before handing the baton off to Kiat, taking the piece and tram to an assertive conclusion”, with the team giving bohemian background to guest vocalist Rebekka Salomea as she taps into her inner Nico on a poetic “Enoshima”.
A mix of abstraction and vitality makes for an album not made for background music, but for thoughtful imbibing.