Space: Embrace the Space

The second album from the Swedish collective Space, comprising pianist Lisa Ullen, bassist Elsa Bergman and drummer Anna Lund, finds further intrigue and sustenance in the soil that nurtured its eponymous 2022 debut. The three principals share a vision of the piano trio that accentuates the percussive aspects of the format. They have honed that synergy over several years, having first united as the engine room of saxophonist Anna Hogberg's celebrated Attack, which can be heard on another eponymous debut (Omlott, 2016) and the follow up Lena (Omlott, 2020).

Ullén provides the key. She operates in that sphere where Cecil Taylor is the patron saint and fellow travellers include the likes of Kris Davis, Satoko Fujii and Sylvie Courvoisier. However, she takes further than many the credo that the piano contains 88 tuned drums, as she hammers out series of rapid-fire minimalist patterns and thunderous ringing motifs. These she gifts further distinctiveness by intermittent preparations to her instrument, resulting in an attractive clanking tonality. There is a lovely moment in the standout "Bleach," when a string of notes in the treble register, clacking like castanets, draws an apt rejoinder of repeated woody pitches from Lund's kit.

As well as empathetic but understated commentary, drummer and bassist combine in a loose mesh, which supports but does not impose, across the eight spontaneous inventions. Lund's clattery drums and machine gun rat-a-tat impart a glitchy stutter to Ullén's forceful chording in the opening "Look," and a lurching momentum elsewhere, abetted by Bergman's resonant pizzicato foundation. Only on the closing "Blood & Money" does the bassist pick up her bow, careening freely amid the surrounding chatter and rattle.

If there is one weakness to the set, it is that they do not really do endings. Many of the cuts seem to peter out once the initial objective has been achieved. That proviso aside, Embrace The Space is a thrilling demonstration of a powerful communal intent.

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