PLS.trio - Cosmonauts (2021)

Cosmonauts is the exciting follow-up to PLS.trio’s 2015 debut album East River, which was lauded by All About Jazz as “the best in this category in many years”, and was nominated for “Best New Album” at the 2015 NPR Jazz Awards.

With influences spanning from minimal and ambient music to hard-pumping dance music and bombastic rock styles, PLS.trio creates a blend which, while defying easy categorization, is compelling, distinctive, and oddly familiar. With Cosmonauts, these electronic-driven modern jazz explorers continue this tradition with a first-rate mix of precision, refinement, playfulness and invention.

The tracks of Cosmonauts are adorned with bombastic, epic space-battle beats from drummer Shawn Crowder (Emel Mathlouthi, Sungazer), ferocious improvisational motifs of bandleader Pier Luigi Salami (Emel Mathlouthi, Chris Brown, Amy Vachal), and a breadth and depth of timbres explored by bassist / synth bassist Martin Fowler. However, while all these components lend gravity to the vast compositional expanses throughout the record, the standout, trademark fixture of all PLS.trio pieces lies in their uncompromising sense of melody. While so many of today’s improvisational instrumental artists hide behind their complex rhythmic and tonal chops, PLS.trio revels in the power of sweeping, memorable melodies — though they certainly maintain the chops to support these melodies and improvisations.