Journal Intime: Extension des feux

The trio's third album parallels its desire to generate music based on unorthodox group settings. Along with distinguished guest artists, avant-garde guitarist Marc Ducret and accordionist Vincent Peirani, the program is designed with numerous sound-shaping factors and incongruent angles. But these suite-like compositions are engineered on either complex or modest structural elements, tendering an abundance of fascinating musical perspectives. And Ducret's distortion-laced guitar voicings provide an additional dynamic amid many of these dense frameworks that equate to a succession of complementing and polytonal, miniatures.

No doubt, this is a resourceful aggregation. Many of the ensemble's agile forays boast mesmeric choruses, looping ostinatos and blitzing unison breakouts, spiced with odd-metered little big band type charts. Ducret and Periani offer a horde of contrasts with the horn section as they also engage in loosely organized improvisational movements. It's a pulsating journey that sustains interest from start to finish, abetted by bubbly rhythmic jaunts and unanticipated paradigm shifts.

On "Orage a Tonnerre," Ducret's scratchy lines add a razors- edge to a climactic buildup, as bass saxophonist Frederic Gastard firms up the bottom-end with his pumping notes. However, "Chroid" features bluesy phrasings that morph into an ultra-progressive, 2nd line New Orleans March motif leading to the artists' scrappy exchanges.

The horn section sparks memories of the World Saxophone Quartet on "Les 38 Lunes," where regimented and complex passages generate some pop and sizzle, yet softened by Periani's rather playful solo jaunt. In sum, the jazz vernacular gets a bit of an overhaul via these altogether mind-numbing musical statements.