Probably not the trio you would have expected a few years ago. Possibly the furthest removed from his prior environment is David Daniell, once a fine practitioner of lower case electro-acoustic improvisation (whose work therein should be far better known) but more recently as right-hand man to Rhys Chatham in both guitar ensembles as well as in incarnations of his amazing Guitar Trio. Fennesz as well has been mutating his sound in recent years, depending on cohorts, from the sublime abstractions created with Keith Rowe to the bland, sugary concoctions in the company of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Buck as well ranges from rockish environs (where he seems most comfortable) to more ethereal domains, where his work can be problematic.

The music on "Knoxville", recorded live in that city in February of 2009, dwells largely in a Chatham-type space. The four pieces are essentially vast crescendi and decrescendi, voluminous upwellings filled with melodious noise. "Four pieces" is misleading, however; it's a single performance divided into four tracks and, as such, hard not to think of it in classical symphony terms. The opening has kind of a "breaking dawn" feel, scrapes, squeaks and tappings gradually congealing into a full-fledged, rosy, romantic sunrise. It's a bit overmuch, like a painter losing himself in mauves, purples and pinks. The second track recedes a good bit, becoming both more pastoral and itchy, guitar quavers matched by nervous percussion, though it too coalesces into a surging storm, very reminiscent of portions of Fripp and Eno's Evening Star but with far more bottom. Another subsidence begins the third track, very dreamy and lovely, all faraway echoes, leading into the highlight of the disc, the finale. Here, Fennesz unlooses some wonderfully harsh, iterative and insistent blasts, sounding like some futurist, steam punk locomotive, piercing through an industrial fog, eventually disappearing into a complex mass of guitar and percussion. It's worth the wait and manages to strip away some of the bloviating factor that marred the onset.

It's a short disc, at some 31 minutes, but fans of Chatham or Branca will find much to enjoy and Fennesz aficionados will hear yet another aspect of this intriguing and often frustrating musician.