Indigo

Indigo is the third outing from groundbreaking Belgian trombonist, composer, and arranger Nabou Claerhouts quartet, N∆BOU. It follows 2019s Hubert EP, 2021s You Know, and her time as artist in residence at the 2023 Brussels Jazz Festival. Here she unveils a new lineup with only one returning member, double bassist Trui Amerlinck. The new members are drummer Daniel Jonkers and electric guitarist Gijs Idema. The music, while indelibly yoked to her earlier works, is an evolution from her other recordings. Indigo showcases the composer as intuitively creative and vulnerable while her band forms a gauzy chrysalis around her. Unabashedly emotional, the albums unique atmospheres offer nuanced and graceful beauty framed in improvisation and emotional honesty. Claerhouts original music is one of elasticity; it evidences near alchemical transformation as experiential life lessons shapeshift into sound and composition with a risky openness that suits these themes of personal evolution, renewal, and the ever-changing nature of human relationships. The brief set opener "Consent (For Stijn)" finds her trombone at the ensembles center (where it remains throughout the recording), played with unique, sophisticated lyricism and restraint. Drums and a deep arco bassline offer the opening vamp, compounded texturally by painterly electric guitar. Claerhout plays a haunting melody before Idema comes to join her, twinning their lines as ambient sounds expand the spatial dimension. "Light Blue Shawl" – Also "for Stijn," in the center of the album, is a pillowy ballad offered with lithe lyricism as Claerhout combines melody and improvisation. Her trio knows exactly where to go as they hover in the ephemeral tapestry behind her. "Echo[s] 1-3" are spacious interludes; they border more expansive works and create warm, airy borders between the balladic post-bop of "Torch," the slowly unfolding, mysterious balladry in "Lost Song," and the punchy, ethereal swing of "Joanna." "Flux Bloom" is delivered as an uncluttered and fluid ballad form. Idema and Claerhout usher in a spectral, open melody before the rhythm section enters with an anchoring vamp. The frontline players stick to intricate interplay that becomes nearly songlike. The fingerpopping groove of "Unpersuadable Extern" unites lyricism with abstract post-bop. Idemas deft, illuminating guitar work walks a tightrope between quietly flickering textures and unhurried playfulness as the rhythm section surrounds the frontline duo, never abandoning their sense of rounded suppleness in anchoring them. "Torch" sounds like its title. Claerhouts harmonic melody is joined initially by the guitarist, who shortly moves off into his own swinging solo. The brief closer "Ruin and Redemption" is engaged group improvisation led by the trio before Claerhout binds them together with her theme and a poignant, wandering solo. With Indigo, Claerhout reveals her truly distinctive compositional acumen, and proves that her musical adventures are transformative as they are guided by discipline, invention, and an open, fearless heart. ~ Thom Jurek