Reviews

Atmos documents the debut album of a new intergenerational trio of Karayorgis with Rhode Island-based young tenor and soprano sax player Noah Campbell (who is finishing his doctoral studies in Political Science), and double bass player Brittany Karlson (who recently relocated to New York). Karayorgis, who initiated and led this trio, named it and the album after the Greek word for vapor, as its music, with its emphasis on phrasing, space, and dialogue, evokes the sensation of watching vapor rise and dissolve. The album was recorded at Wellspring Studio in Acton, Massachusetts, in May 2024.

The album features six free improvisations, five compositions written specifically for this trio by Karayorgis, and one by Karlson. But all the pieces suggest an intimate, conversational dynamics, always open and risk-taking. These pieces never settle on familiar courses or conventions as they flirt with modern jazz, free jazz, and contemporary music, or attach themselves to any compositional theme or improvised idea. The album cements the deep affinity this trio has established since its inception in 2023. Its contemplative music, with its concise and precise cadences, feels free and fresh, often even poetic, as in Karlson’s “Faultlines”, or Karayorgis’ “Neumes” and the last, title piece. 
Eyal Hareuveni, Percorsi Musicali, September 9, 2025

When Athens-born pianist Pandelis Karayorgis broke through in the 90s with a string of superb releases for Leo Records he was very much affiliated with the micro-tonal circle of Joe Maneri. Karayorgis had studied with Maneri, Paul Bley and Jimmy Giuffre and others at the New England Conservatory, and his playing seemed to draw as much on Monk and Tristano as the harmonic liberations of the Second Viennese school and the rhythmic abandon of Bartók and Stravinsky. He later co-authored an academic study of Monk’s harmonic system, and amongst a discography of over two dozen albums his Monk projects retain a special place.

This digital-only release from the label he co-founded with saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra in 2012 is simultaneously released with a CD by his longstanding trio with Nate McBride and Randy Peterson. While it was tempting to review the better-known trio, particularly given my admiration for the brilliant Peterson, I suspect that this trio with saxophonist Noah Campbell and bassist Brittany Karlson will garner less coverage. The name of both the band and the album come from a Greek word for vapour, and in their music, which occupies a similar if slightly less rarefied space as Paul Bley’s mid-90s trio with Evan Parker and Barre Phillips, Karayorgis’s notes explain that he senses the effect of vapour rising and dissolving into the atmosphere.

Highly conversational, the lines between improvisation and composition frequently blur during the album’s six improvisations, five Karayorgis originals and single piece from Karlson (Faultlines). Karlson, who recently moved from Boston to New York, is equally at home inside and outside of the harmonic framework, while Campbell shares with Ellery Eskelin a similarly fluid relationship to the pre-bop tenor titans. On Here In July he slips effortlessly between old and new, while on Improvisation 5 and Neumes his clean and nuanced soprano recalls another Monk specialist, Steve Lacy. Even the more extrovert pieces such as Origin Story retain a strong sense of history, due in no small part to Karayorgis’s thorough absorption of Monk’s language. A wonderfully inventive and free-wheeling set, and as the final pellucid notes of the title track vanish into the aether I’m left hoping that Karlson’s move won’t spell the end for this trio.
Fred Grand, Jazz Journal, 20 October 2025