Leonardas Pilkauskas leaves the piano out of his trio

A little over a minute for Wed; more than twelve for Karma. Leonardas Pilkauskas’s 2025 album Trio El Grey makes room for both, interspersing seven weekday titles with the longer Karma, Grace and Hormos sections. The personnel stay the same: Pilkauskas on alto saxophone, Francesco Angiuli on bass and Andreas Fryland on drums.

The missing piano offers a useful way into the record. Rather than following chords laid out by a keyboard player, listen for the relationship between the saxophone melody and the bass line. Three players can suggest harmony without assigning it to one chord-playing instrument.

Pilkauskas discussed developing a trio programme with musicians in Lithuania in a 2025 interview with Ieva Pakalniškytė. “The programme came together through those concerts,” he said of performances at several Vilnius venues. For the recording, he wanted to work with Angiuli and Fryland because of their existing musical relationships, not because he had ranked them above other players.

His earlier album How Deep Is Her Voice, released in 2022, had already moved between different ensemble sizes. Four singers appear across the record, but Eisva mudu abudu credits only two musicians: Gintarė Skerytė on voice and Pilkauskas on saxophones. He also arranged the Lithuanian folk song. That earlier recording, rather than a track from the trio album, is the listening link accompanying this article.

Pilkauskas’s arranging work also extends to big bands, chamber groups and symphony orchestras. Against that background, the trio poses a practical composing question. With no horn section or strings waiting for another part, what should each of the three musicians be asked to carry?