Axel Erotic: In Love With

French drummer-percussionist Sylvain Darrifourcq describes In Love With, his trio Axel Erotic debut album, as "the curves of the desire imprisoned somewhere, in a space with an implacably rectilinear geometry. But it's also a pink sky pastel, something of our sexual, epileptic and short-lived world." An apt description of Axel Erotic, a trio that is comprised of classically-trained musicians who like to experiment and improvise on the format of acoustic, chamber jazz.

Darrifourcq, known as the drummer of saxophonist Émile Parisien quartet, is the main composer. Joining him are the brothers Ceccaldi—Valentin on cello, who also plays with Darrifourcq in the trio MilesDavisQuinteti! and in another trio with saxophonist Xavier Camarasa—and Théo on violin. The brothers Ceccaldi are part of the young musicians collective Tricollectif, leading their own trio and collaborating with many innovative French musicians including double bass master Joëlle Léandre and guitarist Marc Ducret.

Axel Erotic sound as a small acoustic orchestra. Darrifourcq's smart compositions challenge and expand the rich language of the versatile brothers Ceccaldi with its fast-shifting dynamics, or as he defines it: "written to measure the soft warped bows of Théo and Valentin Ceccaldi." Darrifourcq injects these compositions with highly inventive, sharp and even percussive touches that rarely settle on any pulse and more often charge these pieces with dramatic colors and tension.

All pieces sound as parts of one, long suite. Darrifourcq's creative palette of colors and sounds triggers the Ceccaldi's to extend their bowing techniques on pieces like "À Saveur De Très Beurre" and "Sexy Champagne." Both pieces offer dadaist series of percussive collisions of weird sounding bows, strings, skins, and metallic objects. Axel Erotic can swing hard and fast, as on the playful "Asil Guide" and the fusion-tinged "Les flics de la police," but the restless Darrifourcq always alters his polyrhythmic playing, subverting under the tight, passionate bowing work of Théo and Valentin Ceccaldi. The last piece, "Chauve et courtois," takes the trio into another terrain. Here all three search the timbral qualities of their instruments, patiently and organically sketching a poetic yet chaotic texture.

Impressive and inspiring.