90 years after likely the first piano-bass-drums trio recording (Jess Stacy) and 75 after the first documented free improvisation (Lennie Tristano), there should be new spirit added to justify another free piano trio date, something to make the process more than the point.

British pianist Steve Beresford, veteran of myriad improv sessions, doesn't need this author to tell him that, at least on the evidence of the new amalgam heard on B-Smart. With him is a partner of long-standing, compatriot drummer Mark Sanders, the pair working together under the pianist's name, in the London Improvisers Orchestra and scenarios as varied as Jah Wobble and John Butcher. The group is completed by younger Italian bassist Pierpaolo Martino, who has credits in both avant jazz and rock and works alongside Beresford in Frequency Disasters, another trio with drums but very distinct.

So Beresford — not to keep assigning him undue leadership in a collective — has collaborators of different tenures who [may] have not previously played together. That immediately creates a certain tension between familiarity and freshness. But that only goes so far, so there is an additional element, or ghostly bandmember, bringing even more innovation to the two parts of "Dark Materials": the electronics of both Beresford (who also prepares his piano with "objects") and Martino. These new textures are well integrated into the ensemble, much better than many other inclusions of same, actual musical elements rather than distracting squiggles or squeaks jockeying for attention with acoustically produced tones.

Perhaps even more important to the success of the project, recorded live in Italy, is Martino's background. Unlike many bassists in free environs, he is not afraid to ride ostinati, lock into grooves, be it pizzicato or col legno, creating appealing structure and foundation, to which his partners can either run parallel or intersect. This is most beautifully on display halfway through the first part, where he settles into an earthy, Johnny Dyani-esque figure. That this resolves into a conversation among space creatures across dimensions is even better.