divr is a new Swiss jazz trio featuring pianist Philipp Eden, double bass player Raphael Walser and drummer Jonas Ruther. The three musicians met more than 15 years ago in Zürich and describe the trio’s dynamics as playing as real-time composing in a free, multi-directional time, always in accord with the specifics of space and temporality, stressing strong individual voices who enjoy playing together, trusting the mindfulness of the process, their instincts and the natural flow of the music. The debut album of the trio, Is This Water, was recorded at The Zoo in Bern in February 2022. Dan Nicholls (of Y-OTIS) did the mixing, editing and post-production that gives the music a deeper layer made from field recordings and layered textural ideas.

divr’s music heads in a direction of its own, using conversational improvisation as a means for sketching instant composition and infectious grooves. It feels that divr has established its sound and dynamics – spontaneous, organic and bold simultaneously. The trio focuses on an exploration of sonic interdependencies and differences, framed by the practice of deep listening.

divr experiments with an intense, deconstruction of the old standard «Sweet and Lovely» by Gus Arnheim, Charles N. Daniels & Harry Tobias and turns it into a dark, free jazz piece (check «Supreme Sweetness»). On other pieces, divr explores its interests in West African rhythmic patterns (check «42»), ambient (check «VHS Tomorrow» and «A Glass Is No Glass Is a Glass», with impressive post-production),  a minimalist kind of post-bop (check «Tea High») and covers beautifully Radiohead’s ballad «All I Need» and Broadcast’s esoteric «Echo’s Answer». The trio adds that this album corresponds with the atmospheric moods of the films of Hong Kong director Wong-Kar Wai, nonlinear but lively, heartfelt and with liquid mercury flow.

A promising statement.

Eyal Hareuveni

Philipp Eden (piano), Raphael Walser (double bass), Jonas Ruther (drums)

f