Enneads (Phyllis Chen / Hamir Atwal / Zach Layton) – Enneads (2026; Bandcamp) – Avant Music News

A few times a year I get to use the phrase “sounds like nothing else” when describing a new album. This is one of those times.

Billed as doom jazz, Enneads is the trio of Phyllis Chen on piano, Hamir Atwal on drums, and Zach Layton on 17-string bass. Aside from Layton’s custom instrument, the group’s novel thrust is its focus on overtones as a structural grounding. Chen plays the piano strings directly with her hands, touching and plucking them to produce damped notes with odd degrees of sustain. Layton coaxes overtones from his bass much as Chen does from the piano, and then he runs this output through effects pedals and an amp. Both musicians have many strings to work with, and each string they sound sets several others ringing sympathetically, akin to a harp.

The result is, well, unique. Chen’s abruptly plucked and improvised notes hover pointillistically over fuzzed out drones and chords from Layton. Atwal is the straight man here (to the extent that term makes sense in this context), providing a rhythmic base and a sense of forward motion to the deliberate pace of his bandmates. One need only listen to Eidos to hear the doom, as Layton’s playing evokes drone metal. For the jazz, Atwal adds accents and grooves throughout, notably in Kairos and Pathos. The emphasis is on texture and process rather than conventional melodic structures. Indeed, the album feels at times like an off-kilter jam session.

Overall, this is a pleasantly unusual recording. It will be released on August 29, 2026. Give it a room with good acoustics and no distractions.