Critic Eyal Hareuveni just wrote a lovely review on TONUS’ Analog Deviation album for the Percorsi Musicali webzine. The album is available here.

The chamber trio Tonus features three musicians from the Verhoeven Invites ensemble: Series on archtop guitar, British Benedict Taylor on viola and broken fiddle, and Verhoeven on grand piano. Analog Deviation is the second album of this trio, following Texture Point (A New Wave of Jazz, 2018). It was recorded at Serries and Verhoeven’s home studio in Brecht, Belgium, in August 2023, a month after the Verhoeven Invites performance.  

The atmosphere is more minimalist and sparse, unhurried and abstract, flirting with reductionist Musique concrète, and faithfully corresponding with Verhoeven’s monochrome cover photo. The two extended pieces – “Inbound” and “Outbound” – investigate the delicate, almost transparent timbral possibilities as well as the extended techniques of the three improvisers. The trio opts for strict and limited means and rules, stressing “the force of silence and space”, as Guy Peters mentions in his liner notes to Texture Point. But it is performed with poetic commitment and demands a similar, active role from the listener.