Atlantic Road Trip: Watch As the Echo Falls
Calligram Records

That Watch As the Echo Falls cuts a wide swath doesn't surprise, given that Atlantic Road Trip comprises Chicago-based trumpeter Chad McCullough, Scottish multi-instrumentalist Paul Towndrow, and vibraphonist Miro Herak, who, born in Czech Republic, grew up in Slovakia and now calls The Hague home. Enriching the trio's sound, McCullough augments trumpet with flugelhorn and synthesizers, while Towndrow contributes alto saxophone, flute, and whistles. With a traditional rhythm section absent, the rhythm component often falls to Herak, though he also assumes a front-line role as fervently as his partners. On paper, this group invites the label ‘chamber jazz,' but multiple other genres and colours surface on the album, classical minimalism for one and folk, not American folk music so much as the kinds originating from Scotland, Ireland, and Slovakia.

McCullough co-founded Calligram Records in 2023, so it also doesn't surprise that Watch As the Echo Falls would appear on it. Atlantic Road Trip is no vanity project, however, but a high-quality recording that could have found a home on many another label. Interestingly, the trio's sophomore release marks a dramatic change from the quintet format of its debut, One. Expanding on that set-up even more, a subsequent tour saw Atlantic Road Trip touring a large-scale work called Over Mountain, Under Sky that was scored for big band, orchestra, and trio. Watch As the Echo Falls, by comparison, strips the group's sound to its essence and core. Pinning it down is something else altogether, however, when the landscape changes from one track to the next. Twelve pieces appear, two credited to Towndrow, three to Herak, and the rest McCullough. Considering the trio's international make-up, it makes sense that the album would have been recorded at various places in The Hague, Chicago, and Glasgow.

Blossoming flugelhorn textures, saxophone, and vibes provide a promising entrance to the release in the meditative overture “Exordium.” The album's formal beginning arrives with the jig-driven “Parting of the Adriatic,” which spiritedly draws from Balkan and Celtic traditions in its fleet-fingered whistle patterns and dance rhythms. On a more introspective tip is McCullough's “Silere,” which evolves from a gentle saxophone intro to unison voicings of trumpet and sax, Herak's vibes marking time alongside. As the horn and woodwind ruminate, it's hard not to be reminded of ECM recordings by Jan Garbarek, Tomasz Stanko, and the like, and as the jazzy “Echo Falls” illustrates, “Silere” isn't the only time such an association asserts itself.

The minimal trumpet-and-vibes arrangement on “Prologue” brings forth some beautiful playing from McCullough (“Epilogue” too) before a seamless segue into “Spell Breaking” revisits the rousing folk-dance stylings of “Parting of the Adriatic.” For a group so quick on its feet, the melding of classical minimalism (heard in the ostinato vibes patterns), Balkan folk (multiple whistles), and jazz (double trumpet) comes easily and naturally (McCullough's description of it “as a longer-form composition drawing equally from Tears for Fears and the Irish-Anglo traditional band Flook” seems especially on-point). Consistent with its title, Herak's wistful “Past Memories” exudes nostalgia for times and places long past and now reachable only through memory. Similar in tone is Towndrow's “Cadmus,” an intimate, ballad-styled setting titled after a WWII minesweeper who sailed with his grandfather's ship, the HMS Sheffield. Ending the album with the pretty, West African balafon-inspired “Singularity” was a smart choice in showcasing the trio's tight connection.

June 2026