Lina Allemano Four: The Diptychs

Lina Allemano Four's The Diptychs presents three pairs of compositions, inspired by the visual art concept of placing two panels side by side. Just as diptychs in painting create meaning through contrast and dialogue, Allemano's music fashions reciprocal, interdependent sound worlds within each pair.

A restless and inventive presence, Allemano splits her time between Toronto and Berlin. Trained in both classical and jazz trumpet, she leads the electric power trio Ohrenschmaus, the pseudo-psychedelic improvising quartet Titanium Riot, and the trumpet-electronics duo Bloop, while also appearing frequently in solo performance. Her command of extended trumpet technique are showcased on Aphelia (Relative Pitch, 2023) in collaboration with Axel Dorner. Beyond her own projects, she has contributed to ensembles led by Rob Clutton, Peter Van Huffel, and Mats Gustafsson.

For The Diptychs, Allemano turns to her long-standing quartet of alto saxophonist Brodie West, bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Nick Fraser. After 20 years and multiple releases together, their cohesion is undeniable. The group glides through the six tracks (three diptychs), prioritizing collective interplay over conventional solos. The music unfolds as a dialogue of textures, gestures and shared impulses rather than spotlight-driven improvisation.

The opening pair, "Positive" and "Negative," are less opposites than mirror images. "Positive" sparkles with hop-and-skip buoyancy, Allemano and West conversing in a bright, almost playful counterpoint reminiscent of Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman's late-1950s rapport. By contrast, "Negative" evokes the cool hues of Gil Evans' orchestrations for Miles Davis—more shaded, measured and atmospheric.

The next pairing, "Resist" and "Coalesce," is built on momentum. "Resist" works like a tug-of-war, its phrases bouncing and rebounding with a subtle march-like quality. "Coalesce" gathers that tension and channels it into forward motion, its drive propelled by Downing's resonant bowed bass and Fraser's restless brushwork.

The final set, "Scrambled" and "Over Easy," balances abstraction and clarity. "Scrambled" conjures fragmented soundscapes, gestures darting and colliding in painterly swaths. "Over Easy" provides the counterbalance, its more structured drive setting the fragments into order without losing the quartet's mercurial edge. Though Allemano avoids formal solos, each track teems with micro-interactions—brief exchanges, splashes of extended technique and quick-witted responses that form miniature diptychs within the larger ones.

With The Diptychs, Allemano and her quartet offer music that is at once conceptually rigorous and deeply playful. The album thrives on interdependence: No voice dominates, no gesture exists in isolation. Instead, ideas refract, reshape and echo across the ensemble, much like the visual art form that inspired it. The result is a body of music that feels both meticulously composed and spontaneously alive—an exploration of balance, contrast and the creative space that emerges in between.