Éclats - Live In Europe, the fourth recording by Sylvie Courvoisier’s trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen, documents the outfit at a point where structure and spontaneity have become nearly indistinguishable. The album artfully stitches together excerpts from three dates in early 2025, while maintaining a consistent sonic ambience and the continuity of a single performance. It presents nine Courvoisier compositions, all but one drawn from the group’s previous three outings, including some of the pianist’s most memorable tunes in what could pass as a greatest hits compendium.

Even in normal circumstances, Courvoisier’s writing teems with catchy hooks, abrupt switchbacks and sudden suspensions. After six years of touring this repertoire following 2020’s Free Hoops, the trio has internalized the material to the point where the charts function more as points of departure than fixed forms. As a consequence the renditions here bear scant resemblance to the original versions, thematic framing aside. Nor are they alternate codifications. Having been lucky enough to witness the threesome several times in recent years, I can attest that they treat the pieces as organic entities, freshly minted on each occasion, kaleidoscopic in reach.

The title cut, one of the pianist’s flagship numbers, which has appeared in multiple guises over the years, furnishes a case in point. Dedicated to Ornette Coleman, it echoes the saxophonist’s vivacity, but views it through a distinctly exploratory lens. After the sprightly head, a lyrical bass and drum interlude settles into a walking groove. Courvoisier exploits this as a backdrop for a jaw-dropping display incorporating metal rubbed across strings, poltergeist taps, jazzy consonance, bluesy motifs, Cecil Taylor-like energy and articulation, and hyperspeed runs which suggest Conlon Nancarrow at his most ambitious. Her ability to meld real-time piano preparations and disparate styles into a cohesive whole brooks no rivals. In one exceptional passage she makes the strings veritably moan, eliciting sympathetic bass slurs from Gress. All of it unfolds in just over six minutes, on almost the shortest track.

At times such adventures generate formidable momentum. Gress exerts a mastery of melody and motion, combining them into an elastic flow, while Wollesen takes care of business without neglecting pitch and timbre. Yet although they tether the trio to the tradition, they remain alert to opportunities to subvert it. Foot-tapping or head nodding are likely to lead to dislocation. Form dissolves in an instant, only to miraculously reassemble Terminator-like and carry on as if nothing has happened. Bass and drums shine through gaps in the luxuriant surrounding foliage, whether cleared purposely or occurring by serendipity is a moot point. False endings and teasing feints, in which incipient solos suddenly vanish, render futile any attempt to distinguish scored interventions from collective improvisation.

Gems stud the program. “Just Twisted” takes on the contours of a drum concerto, Wollesen stretching out alone and later atop a rippling piano figure, amid the emphatic flourishes, slashing boogie-woogie and darting clusters. On the kinetic “Imprint Double” Courvoisier essays a dazzling series of glissandos before slotting back into a stomping beat. Gress introduces “South Side Rules” with a singing arco serenade. “Lulu’s Dance” receives a spare pointillist reading, taking its cue from the clipped high notes interpolated into the rolling theme, and providing a platform for the clacks and clangs of the drummer’s homemade “Wollesonics.”

Few working bands move so comfortably between swing, abstraction and chamber-like detail while sounding this wholly engaged with the moment. Among a slew of strong releases, this stands as one of Courvoisier’s finest.

–John Sharpe, pointofdeparture.org