Junk Box: Fragment

As a trumpeter, Tamura can sometimes sound like he's plugged in because of his oscillating notes and mechanized soundscapes. And with these pieces, the band engages in playful cat-and-mouse interplay, coupled with linear phrasing and reverse engineering. They're also apt to shift strategies on a micro-second's notice.

Hollenbeck, praised for his solo outings and all-encompassing musicality, demonstrates superior timing and stick control here. In spots, he shades his bandmates' evocative choruses with triple-stroke cymbal swashes, also boosting the pliant flows with polyrhythmic outbreaks. The trio also executes riveting stop/start motifs where Fujii's cascading crescendos often signal in a primary theme to be used as a foundation for group-based improvisation.

On "At Intersection, On A Rainy Day, Tamura dishes out a sequence of eerie effects using complex breathing techniques atop Hollenbeck's softly enacted cymbal work. The musicians create gobs of movement with ascending passages and multihued pastiches of sound. Invention accelerates at full-throttle speed on Fragment when the trio combines intellectual permissiveness with a loose-groove gait. Required listening.

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