Horizontal Structures

Horizontal Structures follows the Trio's 2009 debut, Vertical Ascent, and last year's Live In New York, and finds them expanding – in all but name – to a quintet. Joining von Oswald, Sasu Ripatti and Max Loderbauer are double bassist (and ECM recording artist) Marc Muellbauer, and on guitar, Paul St Hilaire AKA Tikiman. St Hilaire is probably best known for his vocal contributions to von Oswald and Mark Ernestus's Main Street and Rhythm & Sound projects, but here he shows off his estimable six-string abilities, lending a bluesy liquidity to the group's percussive grooves. It's a more impressionistic, free-roaming and less strictly ordered LP than Vertical Ascent, and at times its electronic and acoustic textures are genuinely, delightfully indistinguishable. - Fact Magazine