Album review: Steve Lodder - 2 Sorts of 3 (Sleeve Records)

Electric (Plugged) Trio: Steve Lodder (Rhodes Mk 8 electric piano); Dudley Phillips (electric bass/acoustic bass guitar); Nic France (drums).

Acoustic (Unplugged) Trio: Steve Lodder (Yamaha acoustic piano); Freddie Jensen (double bass); Marius Rodrigues (drums).

There is something quietly radical about 2 Sorts of 3, Steve Lodder’s latest release. It doesn’t announce itself with volume or virtuoso display; instead, it invites the listener into a carefully considered conversation about sound, space and choice. The album’s premise is deceptively simple: two piano trios, one acoustic and one electric, alternating across the record. What emerges is not contrast for its own sake, but a thoughtful meditation on how context reshapes musical meaning.

Lodder, long admired for his work across British jazz and beyond, resists the temptation to frame the album as a stylistic showdown. The acoustic trio — piano, double bass and drums — leans into lyricism, air and nuance. The electric trio, anchored by Rhodes piano and electric bass, brings groove, texture and a subtly modern edge. Rather than competing, the two line-ups feel like parallel narratives, each illuminating different aspects of Lodder’s compositional voice.

The sequencing is key. By interleaving the acoustic and electric pieces, Lodder keeps the listener alert, constantly re-calibrating expectations. The opening electric track, with its shimmering Rhodes and supple rhythm section, sets out a fluid, almost cinematic sound world. Its acoustic counterpart later in the album feels reflective rather than reduced, as if the same idea is being reconsidered under different light. This mirroring is one of the album’s great strengths: familiar motifs reappear, but they never repeat themselves.

Lodder’s writing is consistently strong. Tunes unfold patiently, favouring melodic clarity over harmonic density, and allowing improvisation to grow organically rather than erupt on cue. On the acoustic pieces, there is a sense of collective breathing — bass and drums responding instinctively to the piano’s phrasing, shaping the music moment by moment. The electric tracks, meanwhile, lean into rhythm and colour, with Lodder’s Rhodes lines gliding and bending, sometimes playful, sometimes brooding.

There are moments of overt joy — grooves that hint at fusion without nostalgia — and others that feel almost pastoral, particularly in the acoustic trio’s more spacious passages. Titles occasionally gesture towards environmental unease or quiet irony, but the music never feels didactic. If there is a message here, it is delivered obliquely: attentiveness matters, listening matters, and small shifts in perspective can transform the whole.

What makes 2 Sorts of 3 especially rewarding is its refusal to rush. This is an album that trusts the listener, allowing ideas to unfold at their own pace. It doesn’t chase novelty, nor does it lean heavily on tradition; instead, it occupies a confident middle ground, rooted in jazz history but unmistakably present-tense.

In a musical landscape that often rewards extremes, Steve Lodder has made a record that values balance. 2 Sorts of 3 is thoughtful without being austere, exploratory without being indulgent — a quietly absorbing statement from a musician who understands that sometimes the most interesting conversations happen between two equally valid ways of speaking. Glenn Wright

Launch date: January 17 @ Pizza Express.