A TRIO Vinyl & CDs

Review: The amusingly named Lebanese free improvisation trio A Trio, formed in 2002 by Mazen Kerbaj Sharif Sehnaoui and Raed Yassin, are considered by some to be the oldest and most active free improv group in the Arab world. With such status comes ever-more impetus to release new music; The Binding Third is their first full-length LP since 2014, recorded live at the Sound Disobedience Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2019. Composed of two long-form pieces, we hear the trumpeter, reed player and double bassist respectively make use of extended and prepared techniques, in turn to create dizzying drones, textures, and noises that challenge the conventional roles of their instruments. The music is intense, dynamic, and unpredictable, reflecting the trio's 20+ years of experience and experimentation.