Two European Trios

Ask a fan of music their favorite trio and, depending on their age and taste, they may nominate Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Jam, Nirvana, ZZ Top, The Police, Crosby, Stills & Nash... If the fan's musical taste is limited to jazz, their nominee is likely to include piano or other lead instrument, plus bass and drums, for instance, the Bill Evans trio, Esbjörn Svensson Trio, The Bad Plus... pick your own choice. It is unlikely that there would be hoards of votes for trios using electronics, field recordings, resonant spaces and the like. Nonetheless, it is not uncommon for experimental musicians to use such sounds as part of soundscapes they create. Instruments are more common, though.

Trio Carbon
Black Heart
Setola Di Maiale 2025

The trio album Black Heart was recorded at Przestrzen Muzyki Wspolozesnej Hashtag Lab, Festival Ad Libitum, Warsaw, on September 13, 2024. The trio comprising Mia Zabelka on violin and/or voice, Ola Rzepka on prepared piano, and Lukasz Marciniak on electric guitar is collectively called Trio Carbon. In 2012, Rzepka played drums in the rock, folk, world and country quartet called Alte Zachen, recording the album Total Gimel (Lado ABC, 2012) before, in 2013, playing keyboards in the quartet Wovoka, and in 2015, its enlarged version.

Born in 1984, Marciniak is the youngest member of Trio Carbon, having been a member of Trio Io, which released two CDs, Waves (Bolt, 2019), and New Animals (Antenna Non Grata, 2021), and one cassette, Parts (Szara Renata, 2022). In contrast, Zabelka was born in 1963 in Vienna, and her first album was released in 1987. Since then, she has released a steady flow of recordings, with trios outnumbering other formats except solo recordings. One sadly missed trio is Trio Blurb, which featured Zabelka, Maggie Nichols' vocals and the late John Russell on guitar.

Black Heart features the title track, played by all three together and listening to one another so that their music holds close enough together to sound rehearsed rather than improvised—which it undoubtedly is. As is often true with Zabelka's music, she bursts into song at times to complement her and her bandmates' instruments. Excellent as the music here is, the album could have been improved by being longer, maybe an hour instead of half that. Until that day arrives, this will be satisfactory, so relish it...

Diatribes & Stefan Thut
L'Apport: La Dechigea (The descent from the Alps)
Insub
2026

Anyone reading the credits for this album may be puzzled over how the credit "Diatribes & Stefan Thut" is compatible with a trio album as above. The explanation is simple: "Diatribes" is a long-established title for the two Insub curators D'incise (real name: Laurent Peter) and Cyril Bondi, who since 2004 have run the Insub label as well as playing together. So, in this case, the trio could have been named Bondi, D'incise and Thut. The latter's connection with D'incise dates back to 2015 when he made a recording of the 2010 Thut composition "vier, 1-12." Further contact was made when Bondi, D'incise and Thut were all members of the octet Insub.8tet, which at Insub studio, recorded Thut's composition "One and Seven" in 2015 and released in 2016. For that recording, Bondi was credited with playing harmonium and Thut with playing cello.

Although D'incise and Bondi are both long-standing members of the Inset Meta Orchestra, which has about 45 members, Thut has rarely appeared with them, if at all. After experiences in new and experimental music, improvisation and noise, he started writing scores in order to specify parts. L'Apport La Dechigea is the first time he has played with Bondi or D'incise since 2015. On it, Cyril Bondi is credited with playing shruti box, D'incise with unplugged laptop and objects, and Stefan Thut with cello. As a trio recording, it works well because each of the three musicians plays enough to be heard and recognized without any of them being dominant or overplaying.

Tracks and Personnel

Black Heart

Tracks: Black Heart

Personnel: Mia Zabelka: violin, voice; Ola Rzepka: prepared piano; Lukasz Marciniak: electric guitar.

L'Apport: La Dechigea (The descent from the Alps)

Tracks: L'apport: La Dechigea (The descent from the Alps)

Personnel: Cyril Bondi: shruti box; d'incise: unplugged laptop, objects; Stefan Thut: cello.

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