Luce Trio, Pieces, Vol. 1

There are albums that come along to remind you that the creative music scene lives on and "business as usual" is something that may be happening out there much of the time, but not all of the time.

Pieces, Vol. 1 (Musaeum Clausum) by the Luce Trio is one of those. It was recorded in reverberant St. Ann and the Holy Trinity church just about a year ago today. And what comes out of that session is a very ambient improvisational take on early and baroque music.

The trio consists of Jon De Lucia on saxophones and compositions, Ryan Ferreira, electric guitar, and Chris Tordini, acoustic bass. The three have worked on some very moving recompositions of music by Handel, Dowland and Bach, plus De Lucia's own ambient interludes that amplify and expand the mood of the set.

This is not an album where you should expect machine-gunning bop licks at a mad tempo. The music takes its time and sounds sensitively but emphatically in the echoed cathedral. De Lucia's soprano-alto has a lovely gentleness and liquid tone that is well matched by Ryan's subtly adventurous line-cluster creating/part rendering and Tordini's matter-of-fact yet essential lower end.

It's music that will wow you little-by-little. The music moves and so you are moved. A beautiful disk!