Jazz
Unit Records · 16 October 2026
On “Outside”, Malcolm Braff plays upright piano, Petter Eldh double bass and Lukas König drums. It came out on 16 October on Unit Records (catalogue number UTR 5296): four pieces running to just over twenty-two minutes, listed on streaming services as an EP. It was recorded from 5 to 11 August 2020, more than six years ago, at Les Suites du Pantographe / Maison-Matrice in Crémines, the village that gives the closing track its name; Martin Ruch and Noé Franklé engineered the sessions, and Ruch also mixed and mastered it.
The longest piece is “Cycle”, at almost nine minutes, and the shortest “3TOES”, at just under two and a half; the record opens with the six-minute “Vienese Grøt à la Berlinaise”. In the notes accompanying the release, Braff says he’s spent years developing his own approach to rhythm, often on his own, at the risk of ending up “talking to yourself”, and says of his two partners: “They are true masters of rhythm.”
Born in 1970, Braff spent his childhood between Rio de Janeiro, Cape Verde and Dakar, according to the label’s biography, written by Arnaud Robert, which also recalls his work with djembe player Yaya Ouattara and trumpeter Erik Truffaz.
Text by Aina Torrents