While g a b b r o, Hanne De Backer’s baritone sax project, used a no frills duo concept for its debut album, things take a different turn on Granular. With Marc De Maeseneer again by her side, this album also involves fellow Belgian experimentalist Raphael Malfliet on electric bass, as well as singular vocalist Agnes Hvizdalek. Taken from studio recordings, as well as the quartet’s performance at 2018’s Summer Bummer Festival, Granular turns fragmentation and attention for detail, sound and space into an invitation to listen without prejudice and expectations. The result is a strikingly original impression of a universe full of unconventional techniques, which retains a balance between the highly personal and a remarkable openness, turning the granules of the title into a broader, organic whole.