...Actually: It's Better Like This...

The debut recording by 3D, a trio built around an unusual front line: German vibraphonist Christopher Dell, American bassist Chris Dahlgren and drummer Maurice De Martin. Working in the chamber-jazz territory opened up by a vibraphone-led format — vibraphone, double bass and drums — the group pursues a refined, conversational approach to collective improvisation that sits between composition and open exploration.

Across twelve concise pieces, the music moves through shifting strategies and textures rather than settling into a single mode, ranging from spare, minimal exchanges to denser interplay. Dahlgren brings experience from his work with figures such as Anthony Braxton, while De Martin's drumming connects this date to several other projects in the Not Two catalog from his Berlin years. The result is an intimate, detail-oriented set that resists easy genre labels, drawing on improvisation, minimalism and sound-art alike.