Teun Verbruggen, Ikue Mori & Ingrid Laubrock - Pillars of Creation (Part 1) (2025) Hi-Res

Blind Io is a transatlantic quartet founded by drummer Teun Verbruggen that captures the imagination with inquisitive improvisations and multi-faceted explorations of sound, texture and space. Taking into account who’s invited to the table, this should come as no surprise.

Ikue Mori has been at the forefront of genre-bending avant-garde music for nearly five decades, initially as a percussionist, later as a pioneering electronic musician with a unique sound and approach. Ingrid Laubrock has become one of the leading reed players in today’s creative music scene, flexibly moving between large-scale composition and free improvisation. Pianist Bram De Looze is the Belgian pianist of his generation, gifted with a refined touch that masks a gutsy sense of exploration and increasingly deep playing. Verbruggen, finally, is an exceedingly versatile drummer, equally comfortable within angular grooves and swing as in sound sculpting.

With titles referencing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld universe, Sanskrit rasa’s (the aesthetic essences of pieces of art) and astronomical phenomena, a conventional game of free-for-all is out of the question. From opener “Hasya” onwards, Pillars of Creation (part 1) is an intricate exercise in molding sound, applying texture and exploring group dynamics. Listen how percussion and electronics start with basic colors and accents, inviting piano and saxophone to join them in creating outlines. As shapes get clearer and edges more defined, the impact broadens, steering the music to extraverted territory. Sound becomes something malleable, electrifying and mystifying.

Other tracks veer from the restless and playful (“Windle Poons”) to the knotty and swaggering (“Miss Flitworth”). “Vira” takes you through an eerie forest of sounds, while “Bary Center”, referencing two bodies orbiting each other in the cosmos, is appropriately open-ended and curious. The album’s second half continues its unpredictable course with dextrous energy, agility and ingenious interplay. By the time you reach the inward looking finale of album closer “Quirm College”, you have experienced a wealth of possibilities.

It is interesting (and recommended) to single out all voices on Pillars of Creation (part 1) for a moment, to remind yourself of their strikingly distinct identities. But even more than that, it is fascinating to witness how they blend, contrast, enhance and inspire each other. It might be tempting to regard Laubrock as the ‘leading’ voice (with a traditional melody instrument), but that would be a case of missing the point. There is no leader here, as you can deduct from how they move around each other in a restless reconfiguration of roles.

With all that abstraction and those free forms, is it heady music, then? Yes, it might be, but not at the cost of losing its sense of wonder. If anything, the album is a reminder of the distance that can be covered when inspired and kindred spirits meet. Space travel for the mind.

Guy Peters