The Gentle War Naim * * * *

Although Trichotomy's pianist, Sean Foran, names Britain's Neil Cowley Trio, Acoustic Ladyland and John Taylor as influences on his Australian trio (with drummer John Parker and bassist Pat Marchisella), their major reference is EST. Yet their new album sees Trichotomy marking out its own territory with emphatic authority, as a stunningly together group in which solos emerge from gripping interplay and subside back into it just as naturally. Startling contrasts in dynamics, unusual time signatures and great rhythmic flexibility are swept along in the flow of invention of exciting performances such as Wrestle, Sync and the playful Cute. But it's the imaginatively open spontaneity and ruminative discursiveness of Blues for the Space(not really a blues) and the aptly named Not According to Planthat mark this trio (and Foran in particular) as distinctive. See naimjazz.com RAY COMISKEY