ELASTIC COMPOSITION
Much can be learned about this trio in the very first four minutes. What's heard is a wonderfully nervous, restless drumming that tinkers in the in-between spaces with broken metrics. This is then joined with the directness of the saxophone, an extraordinarily current sound, always relaxed and filled with an amazing amount of power. And then there is the piano, hovering in the background with time to wait, playing only a few chords, seeking out its place - before seizing it with a vehemence. The trio never breaks down into solo moments, but instead engages in a dialogue that is less a conversation than an exchange of energy.

The piece is titled Darkness from you. It was composed by the French saxophonist Eric Plandé, who plays here with pianist Uwe Oberg, a resident of Wiesbaden, and the American drummer Peter Perfido. Plandé's approach to music, the way he builds it up and lets it unfurl right before our ears, was once described by the composer as an "elastic style of composition." What he meant is that he provides nothing more than a small musical theme, a germ cell. All the rest - the hitches and meanderings, the swelling up and ebbing out, the intertwined voices, in unison and in opposition-occurs during the playing.

For contemporary jazz, which takes the entire history into account and incorporates everything that improvisation allows as a matter of course, this is a very fruitful work style. But it can only be played by musicians with an open ear and confidence in one another.
Plandé, Oberg and Perfido discovered each other in 2009, during a "first-meeting gig," as often happens in the world of jazz improvisation. The three soon recognized that they shared something in common: The desire to look beyond their own musical horizons and let themselves to be carried off by the sounds of the other players without relinquishing
their own position. This allows the music to stay clear and natural even in its most intricate moments. It makes no claims, but instead develops out of the small cells that either Plandé, Oberg or Perfido provide.
What's astonishing is that there are some moments that sound freely improvised, even though they have been precisely noted. And then there are other situations that seem as if they have been composed, but which have actually been created right then and there. Whether this ambivalence was the composer's original intention or not is as unclear as it is unimportant. But it shows the great skill of Plandé, Oberg and Perfido, because the assumed difference between improvised and written music disappears in an organic flow of sound.
The music branches out into many different directions without ever becoming arbitrary. It seeks out open fields where the three musicians are more sparing with their musical gestures and where the intensity is directed inward more than outward. Fields, composed by Uwe Oberg, recipient of the Hesse Jazz Award in 2007, is just such a piece. In contrast, Ghost originated from the clairvoyant and dazzlingly enigmatic drumming of Peter Perfido- an experienced and much in-demand contemporary jazz musician who has been heard playing with Anthony Braxton, Gary Peacock, Chet Baker, Joe Fonda and Heinz Sauer.

Chaos, on the other hand, is sustained by Eric Plandé's passionate, explosively sharp-edged saxophone, which is strongly steeped in the powerful history of his instrument.
It is clear that three musical individuals are at work here, each one with his own musical language, identity and playing style. And the nice thing about it is: no one among them wants to deny this. All three are just open enough and above all, much too musical to not be in competition with one another.
Hence Touching, the first joint CD of Eric Plandé, Uwe Oberg and Peter Perfido, connects current improvised music with the powerful influences of the post-Coltrane era. That in itself may not astonish. What is amazing, however, is that this is done with such aplomb.

~Tim Gorbauch