Henri Texier is my favourite Label Bleu artist, his muscular bass playing is surprisingly mobile and despite his wide range of techniques he never strays too far from the pulse. This new trio features Texier's son, Sebastien on alto saxophone and clarinets and Tony Rabeson on drums. The music, mostly composed by the leader, was conceived as a soundtrack to the Jean-Louis Bertuccelli film Remparts D'Argile  - an almost silent portrait of a Berber village filmed in 1970.

I often think that the bass/drums/reeds trio is one of the hardest group configurations to pull off - the reed player can be left horribly exposed and when he drops out the rhythm section can just sound plain dull. In this case though the sensibilities of the trio overcome any objections: Sebastien Texier's varied use of reeds ranges from an extraordinary alto saxophone outburst on Sacrifice to a mournful clarinet lament on Leila, Tony Rabeson uses a wide array of percussion sounds with subtlety and intelligence, and the leader drives from the back, with his huge resonant sound augmented by slurs and scrapes. The trio negotiate a suite of North African sounding pieces with great cohesion and understanding, where sad themes like Leila and Bravery Chebika are interspersed with violent explorations like Sacrifice and the atmospheric Obsession.

For me the standout track is Bravery Chebika, a piece very much in the vein of Texier's Azur Quintet, a stop start theme with wistful soloing underpinned by the bass player's huge sound.

Get Remparts D'Argile from Amazon UK   

    Press reviews:

   The London Evening Standard wrote: 'An unusually atmospheric album, it makes one want to see the film.' Click here to read the review.

     Jazz Review said 'There are few sounds in contemporary jazz more stirring than that produced by Henri Texier driving a band of like-minded souls at full throttle, and he does this throughout this powerful, passionate and imaginative album'.

   Double Bassist magazine wrote: 'it creates some very evocative soundscapes'. To read the review in full, visit Double Bassist, click on 'review' and perform a search on 'Texier'.