TRIO FERAL : BERLIN FESTIVAL’S “GREAT DISCOVERY”

The “Trio Feral” from Brooklyn had so far that few jazz fans on the screen. Even in the US, the three musicians are still a secret. When “Jazzfest Berlin” in 2014, however, the band was one of the great discoveries.

The piano trio format of this volume not completely reinvented, but the “Trio Feral” creates a highly attractive, energetic sound that has unquestionably its own handwriting and you do not hear every day in this form. Musical genres exist for the three musicians around keyboardist Barney McAll only as a loose orientation, otherwise will be played, what feels good. Unmistakable all parties were also strongly influenced and socialized from pop music and electronic music.

 

” Brilliant stank for a deodorized world” —Gary Bartz

“The Brooklyn-based group Trio Feral unleash far out soundscapes built on tribal beats, sub-bass frequencies, outer-space sounds, and free-jazz improvisation. Anchored by forward-thinking keyboardist Barney McAll, the band strikes a deft balance between melody and noise with freakish and funky concoctions that are both cerebral and groove-inducing”. —BAM

Feral means “wild,” but if anything, Trio Feral aims to make jazz more listener-friendly. “We want to create a narrative or a feeling that anybody can relate to,” bassist Jonathan Maron says. “The goal is an experience that goes beyond just connecting with other musicians.” This aesthetic is, in part, the fruit of Maron and keyboard player Barney McAll’s experiences over 20 years in the band Groove Collective, which draws inspirations from a DJ’s ability to read and heighten the mood on a dance floor. Drummer Bill Campbell joined them to record the group’s first album, DON’T! FEED. They intentionally allowed compositions to emerge out of collective improvisations in the studio, rather than writing them out beforehand. “We wanted this project to be light and fun in its process,” Maron says. “It’s really been an open door for each of us to bring in whatever’s moving us at that moment.” —NPR

Right from the opening notes of Trio Feral’s debut, you know you’re in for a wild ride beyond the confines of everyday harmonic clichés and artificially imposed no-fly zones. No matter which galaxy thousand-limbed keyboardist Barney McAll visits, however, fellow Groove Collective lifer Jonathan Maron’s mighty bass magic is never far from Earth, and his mind-lock with drummer Bill Campbell is simply heavenly. A handful of short interstellar excursions—to robolandia in “The Medium Is the Message,” a twinkly star world in “Summertime Chocolate,” and an abandoned planet in “Phrzn Frby,” for example—leads to meltdown, humor, and ominous horror before reaching the album’s bass-tastic destination, “Tell Me,” and then powering down, sometimes ferociously, to a blissfully floating conclusion. If Maron’s ridiculously full-bodied grooves and super-stank solos don’t inspire involuntary neck spasms and that “what’s that smell?” look, check your pulse—you just might be out of oxygen.

Enjoy Jazz: The trio Feral in Karlstorbahnhof
 
The trio Feral presents unusual sounds: edged beats, low-frequency bass, techno, noise, space rock and psychedelic

By Rainer Köhl

Trio Feral is called a piano trio from New York. Feral is the name for stray cats or road -dogs, and just as is also the music of the three. Daring, straying between styles, semi-wild.Head of the band is the pianist and composer Barney McAll. He certainly does not only play the piano, but mostly synthesizers and Fender Rhodes.

In “Enjoy Jazz” in Heidelberg Karlstorbahnhof the trio had a remarkable performance.Unusual sounds preferred the band:-edged beats, low-frequency bass, techno, noise, space rock and psychedelic are processed repeatedly in unpredictable combinations.

As in a kaleidoscope oscillates McAll the colors of his keyboards. The compositions often come along as instrumental pop songs, which lack the melody and which only strange accompanying voices are heard. Then again you could hear sounds like a comic. Playful Experimental with surreal, delirienhaften sounds, trickling Synthisounds. But even an edgy blues intoned McAll at the piano, with groovy accompaniment.

With the multi-faceted drumming drummer Bill Cambell and Jonathan Maron on electric bass anthemic rock structures arise as well as free, which is celebrated with Zappa Esker pleasure. Repetitive plucked harmonics formed the bassist to new sound structures.

The sounds of the trio can be times schönschräg and uncontrollably, then plunge back into enigmatically intricate beauties. Creaking and fiddly sounds, wah-wah effects encountered subversive flooding sounds.

Limitless is the sonic and musical fantasy of the trio, which resulted in more unergründlichere areas. And it grooves always good in this concoction: “Do not feed” is the new album of trio Feral Significantly.