Rachel Eckroth, This Is One of Those Moments Review

Back to the Source: Rachel Eckroth’s Quiet Fire on This Is One of Those Moments

By Ferell Aubre

Rachel Eckroth has always thrived in small ensembles. Eckroth is the elegant pianist behind St. Vincent’s angular pop, the orchestrator for the BBC Proms, the composer who treats harmony like a living organism. On This Is One of Those Moments, she strips everything to its core: piano, bass, and drums. The result is an enjoyable acoustic statement, a 35-minute suite of storytelling by the trio.

Eckroth admits she once wrote “eight-bar tunes.” For this project, she writes journeys. The trio is Emma Dayhuff on bass and Tina Raymond on drums. As a unit, they unfold ideas with patient symmetry. It’s a trio that listens and responds with intuition. Recorded by Pete Min at Lucy’s Meat Market in L.A., the EP captures the air vibration between Dayhuff’s bass, Raymond’s drums, and Eckroth’s piano.

The opener, “Asterisk,” sits comfortably in post-bop territory but refracts through Eckroth’s modern prism. The tune shifts meters and moods with understated confidence, balancing tension and release through her chordal colors. Her solo is emotive and architecturally sound, rising and settling like a story being told. Dayhuff’s grounding pulse and Raymond’s responsive cymbal interaction create a shared dialogue.

Built on a pedal tone and cross-rhythmic pulse, “Ether” reveals Eckroth’s fascination with continuity. Its modal base has a meditative structure, but she inserts rhythmic asymmetry to keep it alive. The unison passages between piano and bass lend an orchestral depth to the composition. Dayhuff’s solo is rich with chords and lines that resonate with the harmony. The shape flows naturally from the theme’s structural logic. Raymond’s brushwork paints the rhythm in translucent strokes, reminding listeners how texture can define time.

“Yin Yang” begins by setting a mood with a minor-modal palette shaded with Eastern colors. The opening develops into an intricate interplay of melody and counterpoint. Dayhuff’s lines weave against Eckroth’s voicings like a conversation, overlapping, revealing, and never dominating. As the piece unfolds, Eckroth’s storytelling instinct lets motives morph into new directions with patience and clarity. When Raymond’s drum solo arrives, it completes the story by translating compositional structure into percussive language.

“Hilltops” lives up to its name with its rhythmic ascent built on simple motifs that intertwine into something panoramic. The trio moves with drive and curiosity. Eckroth’s solo matches the tune’s topography: she scales harmonic ridges, pauses at plateaus, then cascades down unexpected intervals. Raymond’s timekeeping is elastic in the conversation, giving Dayhuff room to anchor and propel. Together, they embody the adventurous spirit of contemporary jazz while staying true to acoustic roots.

The title track closes the EP with poised intimacy. It begins with Dayhuff’s warm bass voice outlining the theme, creating a gesture of invitation. Eckroth’s harmonies bloom gently, each voicing chosen for emotional contour. The trio’s command of space becomes its most profound statement: notes fall like light through leaves, rhythmic motion giving way to collective stillness.

By returning to the acoustic trio, Eckroth is expressing piano jazz modernism. The same curiosity that drives her synth experiments now animates her acoustic phrasing. She still goes in many directions, but here those directions converge into clarity. This Is One of Those Moments has an arc from post-bop vitality to lyrical repose and invites repeated listening. Eckroth’s unmistakable signature sound of patience, poise, and that sense of story unfolding.