A member of the pioneering new generation jazz composer/players NYC’s Steve Lehman can In fact be easily singled out as the most exciting in the recent years. His newest album Travail, Transformation and Flow continues to explore the idiosyncratic Lehman sound – albeit with an octet this time – if you remember 2007’s “On Meaning” which was a highlight of the year as well.

On TTF, the octet remains rooted in the avantgarde lore, with rapidfire drumming, time changes and free soloing, yet remain highly listenable unlike much of the improv material thanks to a balance between improvisation and harmonical structure. Indeed a specific kind of harmony, the spectral harmony, as previously explored by Lehman’s tutor, the French composer, Tristan Murail.

In spectral music, the physics of sound informs almost every compositional decision. Attack, decay, and timbre provide the source material for orchestration and musical form. The most prominent overtones of a given sound – of a clarinet or a church bell, for example – create a rich framework for microtonal harmonies that, with the help of computer analysis, are organized according to frequency relationships, as opposed to the intervals of a musical scale. Individual overtones are then assigned to specific instruments in an ensemble, and blended together to create striking new harmonies. Pi Recordings

The music, then, feels angular – geometric indeed – thanks to artificially created phrases on songs, such as “Alloy”, which sound very alien yet satisfyingly beautiful. Debut album from the first silicon-based jazz player?. He’s assisted by his in house drummer Tyshawn Sorey, who as you know is the main driver of the Steve Lehman sound, Mark Shim on tenor and Chris Dingman on vibraphone who is once again a main element. Travail, Transformation & Flow is academic jazz at its best, cold, rational and geometric yet passing the Turing test at the same time, with wondrous improvisational sequences. This is the closer track, which is a cover off GZA’s Living in the world today.

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