Chat Noir's electronic textures and rock vibe may not sit easily with the jazz vision of some. But the band claim a jazz heritage, and indeed this intriguing release, their second for RareNoise, finds them reimagining what the classic piano trio could sound like. So despite the swathes of Schwalm's electronics, it's Fogagnolo's warm acoustic bass that holds the ambient grooves down tight, as on the opening ‘Eternally Tranquil Light’. Likewise, Cavallari's restrained acoustic piano weaves through the anthemic and stand-out ‘Fundamental Mind’, in echoes of the much missed EST. The closing, Eno-like ‘Crystallised Flow’ summons Zawinul playing the most melancholic tune you'd never heard away in a room you can't quite find. It's all most enigmatic as albums cut in the Cloud often are (Cavallari lives States-side, Fogagnolo in Germany), but it's precisely the way these differently textured colours come mysteriously together that gives Nine Thoughts its jazz feel.