Only a piano trio? Whoever tries to get behind the mystery of the brothers Michael Arbenz and Florian Arbenz as well as the bassist Thomas Lähns with this question has not understood the principle of VEIN yet. The cheerful band concept from Switzerland has always been more than that: a sound surface for provocative color combinations, a testing laboratory of modern music, a vehicle for mutual inspiration, as impressively evidenced by a number of high-profile collaborations with prominent guest musicians such as Greg Osby and Glenn Ferris. As if the three had not already ascended to seemingly unattainable heights with their unorthodox laboratory work on the pieces of the classical composer Maurice Ravel (“VEIN Plays Ravel”; DMCHR 71179), the 13th CD announces another great achievement in which one can take the title literally. “Symphonic Bop” integrates a piano trio into an orchestra for the first time, in this case the Norbotten Big Band. Or the other way around: Because VEIN pursues a principle that has already proven itself in the past.CHALLENGE RECORDS
