Vincent Yuen Ruiz - Trio (2026) [Hi-Res]

Copenhagen label FELT releases the thirteenth entry in its catalog — Trio, an album by composer and musician Vincent Yuen Ruiz, another alumnus of Copenhagen's Rytmisk Musik Konservatorium. Where the label's previous release, the debut from Ginte Preisaite, was built on experimental electroacoustic pop, Yuen Ruiz offers something entirely different: restrained, meditative ambient jazz for piano, double bass and percussion, suited to late-night listening.
Formed in Copenhagen in 2019, the group works at the intersection of contemporary jazz, free improvisation and experimental sound practice. The musicians operate without hierarchy — no single instrument dominates. Their harmonic language draws on gestures recalling Bach and Ravel, but unfolds through a repetitive, spacious dialogue between players, informed equally by minimalism and the chamber aesthetic associated with ECM. The album's four compositions balance strict formal structure against live improvisation, treating silence and pause as deliberately as timbre and harmony.
The trio's guiding principle is a rejection of the classic jazz-ensemble model, in which each player takes turns showing off virtuosity. Instead, the musicians work toward a shared sonic space, prioritizing collective emotional effect over individual solos. Their interplay has been likened to the play of light and shadow — an image previously used to describe the music of Czech duo Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi.
Trio is a more intimate, focused work than Yuen Ruiz's previous album, Le seul salut que je connaisse (2021), recorded with an expanded six-musician ensemble. The new record continues his artistic research while distilling it into a more condensed, clearer statement.

Tracklist:
1-1 Vincent Yuen Ruiz - Choral [8:33]
1-2 Vincent Yuen Ruiz - Chords [9:30]
1-3 Vincent Yuen Ruiz - Weaving [12:01]
1-4 Vincent Yuen Ruiz - Korsgade [3:06]