Nothing is free - not even music is free of memory, tradition and association As its name does not imply, this trio is in fact a quartet made up of three Swiss musicians and a German expatriate pianist living in the US. What drives them is a certain concept of freedom - freedom not as the absence of limits, but as a free choice of constraints. Hans Poppel, Peter Schärli, Thomas Dürst and G. Pechet Reber introduce musical forms that they reinvent in each piece. Interactive and instantaneous, they refuse determinism and artiness, relying on intense attention and interplay for their impact instead. This "impressionistic" approach has its source in the tradition of free jazz of course, but steadfastly avoids overly disembodied attitudes and improvisations. Each piece played by The European Hiding Trio is an inventory of possibilities, a draft of new musical structures in which the soloists take a discret stand yet express themselves with power and focus. In this game of oppositions and echoes, the four musicians find a new opening, a strong impulse and a rare musical density. No one tries to dominate music here; all give themselves up to it freely, without the self-indulgence or gratuitous virtuosity that sometimes threaten to bury jazz. Cecil Taylor comes to mind. And, as pianist Hans Poppel says: "nothing is free - not even music is free of memory, tradition and association." The music made by this freewheeling quartet is not new but unheard (of). It requires a playful approach to listening and reminds us with obvious relish that everything is noise for those who fear. © 1999 Christian Steulet