One of the joys of this Norwegian trio's previous album, Pressure, was its minimalist soundscapes that did so much with so little. Devotees of doom rockers Earth and their big bad brethren, Sunn O))), the former's producer guru Randall Dunn mixed Pressure, and here produces Field Day Rituals, recording these sessions in Seattle's Avast! Studios. In theory this partnership should have amped up the compositional drama and sonic mayhem to new levels and yet the result here is more a measured, albeit richly textured, continuation of their twisted take on contemporary European piano trio music. What Dunn has unearthed from the band is the stately beauty of their sound, Løwe's piano work being particularly finely wrought, and his unfailing melodic sense brings a chiming momentum to the album's highlight ‘Dulcimer’. Yet their EST-goes-doom-jazz approach never leaps into overdrive – unlike their febrile countrymen Elephant9 – or wallows in the scratchy soundscaping that made Pressure such a compelling statement. Field Day Rituals, then, pauses at an intersection of styles, happy to linger in a beautifully fractured netherworld of melancholic sound.