Intention

Canadian pianist Marilyn Lerner — equally at home in 20th-century classical music, Jewish and klezmer traditions, and free improvisation — leads this trio alongside two veteran New York improvisers, bassist Ken Filiano (also using electronic effects) and drummer/percussionist Lou Grassi. The group is a longstanding collaboration: their earlier records include Arms Spread Wide (recorded 2008) and the festival documents Live in Madrid and Live at Edgefest (2013, NoBusiness). Intention is the trio's fourth release.

The music is collective improvisation in which no instrument holds a fixed hierarchy — Lerner plays both on the keys and inside the piano, Filiano extends the bass with effects and arco work, and Grassi draws on a wide percussion palette. Reviewers have praised the album for balancing lyricism and abstraction, moving between pointillist, sound-oriented passages and dense, turbulent collective episodes.