"Free improvisation is as much an act of discovery as of creation. On their breathtaking debut, Expanding Light, the brand-new Whit Dickey Trio shines their collective illumination into the heretofore unexplored darkness between them. The album teams the drummer with one of his most long-standing collaborators in saxophonist Rob Brown and for the first time with the young firebrand bassist Brandon Lopez, in what is certainly hoped will be an ongoing communion. The light and the dark, intimate friends and fresh relations -- these are a few of the dualities embodied by the new recording label Tao Forms (launching May 1, 2020 with The Piano Equation, a cosmic solo piano outing by Matthew Shipp). This second release by the label continues the remarkable creative renaissance which Dickey embarked on with his stunning and widely acclaimed 2019 double-album by the Tao Quartets, a Yin and Yang pairing of two distinct ensembles. Expanding Light is an exercise in going full-bore Yang. The result maintains a visceral ferocity even at its most abstract and more gentle moments, a sonic territory that the drummer refers to as 'free grunge,' influenced as much by Nirvana at their finest as by the holistic experimentation of Dickey's mentor, Professor Milford Graves."