Released independently on October 10, 2025, illo.trio’s second album keeps the familiar jazz trio setup but trades the “smoke-filled jazz club” mindset for a far more expansive sound. Blending nu jazz and fusion with post-rock haze and a strong cinematic streak, Wandering unfolds as a ten-chapter journey that earns its title, shifting constantly without ever losing the thread.
The idea of wandering isn’t just a nice title here; it’s baked into the way the Russian trio writes and plays. Themes rarely arrive fully formed – they emerge, change shape, and drift into new corners, with the piano sketching scenes, the double bass tracing firm outlines, the drums nudging everything forward, and subtle electronics and effects blurring the edges. Even the cover art, based on Alexander Murzakov’s photograph of a lenticular cloud over Elbrus, feels like part of the same story, catching the music somewhere between stillness and movement.
That lively interplay is clear right away on “Music from Videogame,” where the double bass is almost ridiculously vivid, steering the mood while piano, drums, and electronics weave around it in a hazy, slightly neo-psychedelic drift. “Interlude 3” and “Glass” are the most openly cinematic stops on that route, all soft focus and late-night glow, with “Glass” closing on spoken-word fragments that feel like memories bleeding into the mix.
“Lynch” tilts the atmosphere into something a bit more anxious and shadowy, while “What” plays with sharp dynamic contrasts: surging passages, sudden slowdowns, and a suspenseful middle section that keeps you hanging. “City” is the album’s most obvious curveball in terms of color, with the guest tenor sax sliding in around the halfway mark, deepening the atmosphere and giving the trio a new shade to play with before the rhythm picks up again.
All that said, what sticks after a full listen isn’t just a few standout tracks, but the sense of a clear identity forming, which fits a band that has taken these tunes through more than 60 shows in the last year, from Istanbul to Berlin, Paris and Barcelona. illo.trio lean into mood and narrative rather than big solo heroics, and Wandering makes that choice feel deliberate and rewarding. The blend of post-rock-tinged atmosphere, jazztronica pulse, and spacious writing gives them a lane that isn’t crowded, and moments like “City” suggest the emotional peaks could hit even harder with more sax and brass woven in. For now, though, this album stands as a confident sign that their wandering has a strong, recognizable direction. And however you file it genre-wise, it’s one of those slick, immersive, detail-rich records you can sink into and keep finding new corners of.
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Find similar music in our Nu Jazz, Jazztronica and Atmospheric Jazz Fusion playlists.
We discovered this release via SubmitHub.
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