Enrique Haneine, Conceivable Directions Review

By Stamish Malcuss

Enrique Haneine’s Conceivable Directions is the product of a deliberately stripped-down, chordless quintet featuring Thomas Heberer on trumpet, Kirk Knuffke on cornet, Christof Knoche on bass clarinet, and Jay Anderson on acoustic bass. Haneine steers the group from the drums, cymbals, and tambourine.

Recorded over two days in February 2025 at Sound On Sound in Montclair, NJ, with engineering by Anthony Ruotolo and Liv Burnett, the sessions caught the quartet’s raw interplay with striking immediacy. Mixed and mastered by Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Recording in New York, the album highlights the transparency of the instrumentation—every horn line etched clearly against Anderson’s grounded bass and Haneine’s layered rhythmic design. Produced by Haneine, it frames rhythm as propulsion. The rhythmic architecture is the defining identity of each of the thirteen tracks.

With Conceivable Directions, Haneine presents what a chordless ensemble can achieve when a composer’s vision is realized through rhythm as architecture. Haneine orchestrates his group with deliberate transparency in a setting with no chordal instrument to cushion, only melody, bass, and percussion to elevate space. The result is a cross-cultural rhythmic inflection that reveals much about his world/Latin-jazz roots.

“Inconceivable Truth” opens the album with angular horn voicings and unpredictable metric shifts. The drumming is a fusion of color and structure set to a steady groove interlaced with snaking melodies from the horns. The absence of chords sharpens the ear as you hear every layer Haneine builds into his playing, from cymbal coloration to inner ostinato across his kit. Anderson and Heberer exchange lines. An interlude of voices transitions to Knoche’s bass clarinet, taking the foreground. Soon joined by Knuffke’s cornet, leading the ensemble into a freer, more expansive section. It’s a composition that expresses rhythm as a living pulse.

“New Notion” leans into a straight-eight ostinato, its forward drive secured by Anderson’s bass. Over that foundation, the horns stretch rhythmically, phrasing in tensions that resolve in creative manners. Knuffke’s cornet tone, full and centered, adds texture while Haneine’s subtle kit figures open conversations for contrast.

On “Four Ahead,” Haneine takes the language of straight-ahead jazz and deliberately subverts it. The melodic lines and counterpoint still point toward chord changes and harmonic resolutions, but the rhythmic scaffolding shifts with meters sliding and reforming underfoot. The effect is a contemporary world-jazz expression that is familiar and exploratory.

“Unique Array of Swirls” does exactly what the title suggests. Horns interlock in spirals, while Haneine mirrors the motion with cymbal swells that shimmer without blur. Knoche’s bass clarinet brings a dark grit to the ensemble, anchoring the spectrum as trumpet and cornet climb above. The density grows but never overwhelms the dynamic collaboration.

With “Perpetual Insights, Haneine explores repetition and mutation. A recurring cell is fractured and reshaped, while Anderson holds the center. The groove plays tricks on perception, toggling between a swung undercurrent and straight-eight clarity. Motifs pass between trumpet and cornet in angular exchanges. This is music as iterative architecture, where form emerges through the transformation of interactive parts.

“Thirteenth Level Indifference” has the horns engage in layered harmonies and counterpoint, threading colors of tension and release that stay grounded in the modern-jazz lineage. Haneine drives an infectious groove. The horn voicings are rich in color and subtle friction and alive with rhythmic urgency.

“Sparkles and Dimensions” is playful and concise, a prismatic study in attack and decay. Cymbal and drum textures move across the spectrum, while short horn bursts refract like flashes of light. It’s an example of Haneine’s ability to compress ideas without diminishing them.

“Irrelevant Own Design” thrives on motion. Moving textures and sudden breaks leave the architecture feeling exciting and fresh. Anderson’s bass converses directly with Haneine’s kit, while the horns appear in layers. Without harmonic padding, the shifting harmonies ring clearly from the horns and bass.

At nearly six minutes, “Never Stranded” features Haneine beginning alone, gradually expanding his kit’s sonic palette until the groove is fully realized for the horns’ entrance. Exotic modes and intervallic leaps in the melody give the piece a sensual, searching character. His drum solo is a standout and is highly creative and deeply musical. The ensemble turns in a vivid demonstration of rhythm as a melodic voice.

“Tended” is a multi-textured composition with muted brass and a responsive bass clarinet. Haneine’s brushwork and cymbal swells create a full bed of resonance for the ensemble. The track unfolds as an interaction of rhythmic possibilities.

“Without a Single Word” puts the horn harmonies into a jazz ballad setting. The long notes speak with each phrase, building the story. The music is emotional, the striking beauty of the horns working together in framing the compositional form and harmonies.

“Very Slick” brings a swing swagger to the set. A tight pocket grounds horn riffs that move with confidence. Haneine drives the band with percussive energy, proving a groove with attitude that allows the ensemble to build labyrinthine rhythmic structures.

Finally, “Nuances of Intuition” distills the album’s ethos. Motifs are exchanged, swelling counterpoints create declarative gestures, pointing toward the album’s focus on the possibilities of rhythmic expression.

Conceivable Directions is a creative project filled with time-feel modulation, ensemble coloration, and layering groove inside groove. For jazz fans who love counterpoint and rhythmic architecture with horns providing the chordal harmony, this album is a gem. Enrique Haneine has created a record where rhythm is supportive by design. Each composition’s architecture is an exploration of what’s possible when groove, counterpoint, and sound style converge.