REVIEWS OF THE HUMAN RITES TRIO, SECOND LIFE
The interplay between the musicians in the colorful structures results in dynamic music that bring forth some of the most formidably structured, impassioned and studiously crafted music that you will have heard in decades. - Ann Carlini, Exclusive Magazine Read Full Review
Few avant-garde jazz artists navigate the delicate boundary between beauty and sonic turbulence as fearlessly as violinist and composer Jason Kao Hwang. On Second Life, his latest collaboration with longtime musical partners bassist Ken Filiano and percussionist Andrew Drury, four expansive compositions unfold like unpredictable journeys through tension, grief, agitation, and fleeting moments of grace. The trio’s music can be abrasive, unsettling, and fiercely unpredictable, yet its greatest power emerges from the contrast between explosive improvisation and passages of profound tenderness. - Jonathan Widran, jwvibe.com. Read Full Review
Following their self-titled debut (TS03), this new chapter elevates the trio’s telepathic interplay to a level of intimacy and instrumental risk-taking that is truly hypnotic.
The playing throughout Second Life is superb, but technical skill is only part of the story. Hwang, Filiano, and Drury seem to understand where the others are going almost before they get there. The compositions give them a framework, but the music comes alive in the way they stretch, interrupt, and reshape it in real time. The result is intense, unpredictable, and often fascinating, with enough structure underneath the freedom to make the improvisation feel purposeful rather than random. - Glen Astarita, All About Jazz Read Full Review
Across all four compositions, what stands out is how the trio moves between freedom and underlying logic without ever losing the thread. Lines can fracture into three separate, seemingly unrelated ideas and then suddenly cohere into a single shared direction, as if the musicians had planned the reunion all along. That combination, spontaneity that behaves, in hindsight, like inevitability, has always been at the centre of Hwang’s music, and here, stripped down to trio format, there’s nowhere for anyone to hide. Every gesture from any of the three musicians can redirect the entire piece, and that exposure becomes the album’s real subject: what virtuosity looks like when it’s entirely in service of listening. - Frankie Pfeiffer, Editor in chief, PARIS-MOVE Read Full Review
Across all four compositions, what stands out is how the trio moves between freedom and underlying logic without ever losing the thread. Lines can fracture into three separate, seemingly unrelated ideas and then suddenly cohere into a single shared direction, as if the musicians had planned the reunion all along. That combination, spontaneity that behaves, in hindsight, like inevitability, has always been at the centre of Hwang’s music - Frank Pfeiffer, Editor in Chief, Paris Move. Read Full Review
Second Life comprises four extended Hwang compositions delineated by rich ebbing and flowing exchanges and constantly shifting passages, enriched by unconventional melodic constructions and perceptible rhythmic ripples.
Each of the four originals moves through shifting moods and tempos. At times the music swings with distinctive, catchy rhythms; elsewhere, Hwang’s expressive lead turns somber, or the trio improvises with collective intensity. Across Second Life, the three virtuosos create stimulating, thought-provoking dreamscapes that draw out the best in one another. - Greg Victor, parcbench.live. Read Full Review
Second Life is on the Recommended New Releases List of the NYC Jazz Record. See page
Second Life, Top 10 CDs fo 2028 - Cadence Magazine. See page