Tyrant Lizard

Tyrant Lizard

Self-released

Tyrant Lizard is a brilliant trio of three of the area’s most distinctively eclectic musical voices: trumpeter/composer Raymond Larsen, bassist Carmen Rothwell, and guitarist Gregg Belisle- Chi. (Rothwell and Belisle- Chi have recently departed for New York City, though to be fair, we can still claim them as our own.)

Tyrant Lizard’s stellar, self-titled album inhabits a sweet spot inside one of the most fertile and creatively active streams on the Pacific Northwest scene: an eclectic hybrid of chamber music and heartland-tinged ambient and cinematic textures, crossed with avant-experimental improvisation. Jazz figures into the mix as well, though it’s a form of jazz practice without the usual genre conventions. The influence of maverick mentors Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz informs the proceedings, and the work of recent ensembles led by Andy Clausen is also a touchstone.

Tyrant Lizard is something of a companion piece to Belisle- Chi’s recent I Sang to You and The Moon, which also features the telepathic interplay of this trio. The three collaborators seem to effortlessly breathe and phrase together, deftly shifting between darkness and light, whether reveling in the pastoral beauty of the stately album opener, “Stegosaurus,” or the bluesy rubato menace of “Gargoyles.”

Other than a couple of covers, Larsen wrote all the music, but is quick to give credit to his stellar bandmates: “There’s enough improvisation in many of them that I don’t see the composition as ‘fully composed’ until Carmen and Gregg are playing it and contributing their voices.”

Larsen’s sound is a clear, lustrous tone, invoking both Chet Baker and the patient expressiveness and attention to timbral detail of Kenny Wheeler. Belisle- Chi’s nimbly versatile guitar work melds expressive, clear twang to ambient washes of noise and space, while Rothwell holds it all down with her earthy, authoritatively deep sound.

–Andrew Luthringer