Penetralia: Grix

Three Greeks based in the musical melting pot of Berlin comprise the cooperative Penetralia. Best known may be reedman Floros Floridis, who has worked with both late master bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Gunter Baby Sommer (on the bassist's Off The Road (Rogue Art, 2007) DVD). Completing the trio are Antonis Anissegos on piano and Yorgos Dimitriadis on drums. As a trio they evoke varied antecedent ranging from clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre's chamber trio to pianist Cecil Taylor's bass less threesome from the 60s and early 70s. However these form but the two poles which they range between in a diversity of approaches.

Together they explore a program of 12 short cuts recorded in the studio in 2013. While Floridis plays a variety of reeds, clarinet seems his main expressive outlet. His yelping slurred lines take on speechlike inflections, often moving from relatively conventional starting points to more extreme tonalities. "Ubuntu" provides one example, starting as a ringing anthem in which serpentine soprano saxophone quickly turns more fractious, while the spry bass clarinet and drums on "Lingual Gyrus" soon goes off the map. Floridis reveals his circular breathing chops on the high energy "What Tradition?," recalling Roscoe Mitchell in his prolonged siren call.

Similarly on piano Anissegos covers all the bases, but demonstrates a predilection to stray into uncharted territory. He also utilizes preparations and excursions under the bonnet, as in the stately "Drifting Sand" and "Asymptotic Mood" where low key clarinet wanders through a soundscape of shimmering piano strings and percussive taps and bangs. Dimitriadis' main role appears support and coloration, which he achieves unobtrusively throughout, adding timbral shading not velocity to the Free Fall like "Pythagorian Skein" and the folkish rumination of "Simple Things."

While many of the cuts evidence a clear compositional framework, particularly later in the program, a freer sensibility holds sway. But whatever the gambit, at the heart of their expression resides a tight conversational interplay which emphasizes the collective rather than the individual.

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