Like
many other people, I enjoyed the music of
the original Ganelin Trio when I first heard
it in the 1980s. Their music was anarchic
but skilful, free-form but amusing. It was
particularly intriguing that such a wild group
came out of the Soviet Union, as their jokey
jazz seemed subversive.
The
original trio of Ganelin, Chekasin and Tarasov
disbanded in 1987 when Vyacheslav Ganelin
emigrated to Israel. He has since reappeared
and formed this new trio, recorded on this
DVD, with Petras Vysniauskas on saxes and
Klaus Kugel on drums. Their music is still
free-form but it lacks the humour which made
the previous group so endearing. On the evidence
of this DVD, they simply play avant-garde
jazz which covers the usual bases of wild
disorder and gentle lyricism. Many of their
pieces depend upon repetitive riffs which
drill themselves into your brain like minimal
compositions by Steve Reich or John Adams.
The
Ganelin Trio still makes more sense than many
other exponents of free jazz but much of their
playing is like an assault course for the
ears – challenging but ultimately tiring and
unsatisfying because it is hard to extract
any meaning from it.
Tony
Augarde
CD Reviews
Nemu
NEMU 005 
