Formed in 2019 by Steve Barry (piano, organ, AUS/NZL), Ko Omura (drums, tabla, JPN) and Kosuke Ochiai (bass, morin khuur, JPN), Polyglot brings contemporary jazz improvisation into dialogue with folk art and traditional performance practices from across the global south.

Across its 15 tracks, the album reflects on the space between ancient and modern, sacred and secular, natural and mechanical. The goatskin of the tabla and the horsetail strings of the Mongolian morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) sit alongside the metallic resonance of the grand piano - a cornerstone of Western classical and jazz traditions - as the trio coax out a sweeping variety of timbres and evocations. As Ochiai explains:

“The Morin Khuur produces rich overtones that remind listeners of the natural cycles of life and Tenger (the sacred sky or divine nature in Mongolian belief). Among nomadic people, it is traditionally played in prayers for their horses’ birth and upbringing, for rainfall, and for the arrival of spring.”

The album’s opening pieces set the tone for this journey. Deep Sea Chimney evokes the bubbling hydrothermal plumes that nurture life in the ocean’s depths. Mr Horse Visits Ikoma introduces the ghostly timbres of the morin khuur set against the tabla’s chatty underpinning, while the piano keeps things rooted in the earth with Barry’s lower register interjections. Jyoti sees the ensemble turn to their shared roots in contemporary jazz, with Omura’s composition laying the foundations to highlight the trio’s organic simpatico. As the album unfolds the Omura and Ochiai swap between instruments as the characters of each piece unfurl, transporting the listener from the Mongolian steppes to the the glistening, icy tundra of Now is Never the Unknown, Quasimodo’s homage to jazz pioneers Thelonious Monk and the late bassist Mario Pavone, and concluding with a dedication to Shinto god of lightning, thunder and storms in Raijin Jinja.

Before Words marks 15 years of creative partnership between Barry and Omura through a series of projects under the moniker Orbiturtle, encompassing both contemporary jazz (with bassist Yoshio Suzuki) and in experimental practice and sound art (with koto virtuoso Michiyo Yagi). For Barry, Before Words reflects the trio’s years of intercultural dialogue and research:

“We formed Polyglot very literally with the intention of learning from and conversing in each other’s musical languages. Each of us has spent years immersed in traditional music in Vietnam, India, Mongolia, Japan, as well as contemporary classical music and our shared background in jazz. This album is about finding the points of resonance between those very diverse, or even apparently incompatible influences.”

Omura adds:

“It’s about energy and empathy — playing from instinct, beyond language. To quote the words of a teacher I encountered while studying tabla, "the essence of expression is the process of trying to find infinity within the finite."

Polyglot’s Before Words is their most fully realised statement yet — a profound musical conversation that transcends genre and geography. In a time of great political division and uncertainty, the trio offer a reminder of the possibilities of patient, curious dialogue: that music, at its best, exists before words.