10 Sketches for Piano Trio is the the fourth solo release from Tim Friese-Greene. Since leaving the ambit of Talk Talk in 1992, Tim has recorded two albums as Heligoland, but 10 Sketches For Piano Trio is the first to be released under his own name. "It didn't seem right for it to be a Heligoland album," he explains. "It is too singular."
And so it is. Because the classic featured line-up of drums, acoustic bass and piano is largely familiar to the ear, we might assume the instruments will take up roles normally associated with jazz. But here the playing and attitude subverts this expectation, and delivers something more primitive on a technical level, more rigorous on a formal level, and something more pared-down harmonically.
Recorded in an old malthouse with a piano Tim picked up in a local market for 50 Pounds, and mixed by Grammy award winner Phill Brown (Eno, Bob Marley, John Martyn) in the valve-heaven of London's Westpoint Studios, 10 Sketches revels in its contradictions, and defies judgement in relation to anything except absolutes.