Plunging straight into their immediate infectious signature sonic grooves with new developed articulate compositions, bass-led trio Phronesis (currently recording their next album), lived up to a highly anticipated performance long before the thrill that surrounded their ‘Pitch Black’ presentation. A project birthed in honour of Høiby’s sister’s courage when facing gradual loss of her sight.

Displaying their acclaimed interplay, particularly Jasper Høiby’s bold plucks on bass, anchoring the rhythmic feel during pianist Ivo Neame’s solo in their opening number ‘Upside Down’, Anton Eger blended layers of subtle and vigorous colourings on the drums, the trio quick to establish their reflex-like chemistry. Shifting dominant percussive riffs and soloists digging out seamless improvised ideas - further developed under innovative spaces, Eger brought audiences to the edge of their seat with light brush strokes soaked in depth one had to almost feel the sound as would he. It was hard at times not to immerse only in Eger’s world, finding yourself consciously having to set a balanced focus, although, chord-free and percussive-less solo duties allowed Høiby and Neame to platform their known talents in ‘Lip Wash’.

As the visual cues became gradually absent – empathising with Høiby’s sister’s experience, tracks from their album Green Delay drew us further into the darkness with maintained engaging intensity. The novel context dispersing the location of sound encouraged concentration to naturally fall on the auditory system to a higher level of definition enveloping the listener into a drum-wrapped fuller sound thickened by Høiby’s purpose-filled tones, highlighting Neame’s detailed accessible melodies. However, even being stripped of Eger’s full-bodied style of playing, his impassioned truthful urgency was still dominantly felt. ‘Happy Notes’ continued to romance the senses ending with ‘Abrahams News Gift’ bringing the lights back on to catch Eger’s drum rolled standing defiant finish, Høiby and Neame in sync.

– Samrit Teckle