Two sides of pianist Vijay Iyer, both striking

Both sets by Vijay Iyer at Swarthmore College's Lang Performing Arts Center on Saturday started the same way: the pianist rang gentle, chiming tones, establishing a mood of quiet contemplation and close listening.

From there, the two halves of the evening went in completely different directions. The first, featuring Iyer as part the trio Tirtha, combined Indian classical music with Western jazz harmonies and rock-infused electric guitar; the second showcased the telepathic adventurousness of Iyer's long-running ensemble.

The concert marked the first time the two projects have shared a bill, despite the fact that Tirtha formed in 2007 and Iyer's own trio has worked together for more than a decade. The occasion culminated Swarthmore's "Sound Breaks" symposium, which explored improvisation in liberal arts education.

Tirtha, which teams Iyer with South Indian guitarist Prasanna and tabla player Nitin Mitta, is the most overt exploration of the pianist's Indian heritage, but as their hour-long set proved, the trio's mingling of East and West is far more complex than that implies.

Iyer's harmonies on "Entropy and Time" definitely recontextualize Prasanna's fretboard-bending Carnatic melodies. But the cultural exchange was complicated during "Abundance" when the guitarist's sound morphed between sounds evoking the traditional stringed veena, Stevie Ray Vaughan-style blues licks, and blistering finger-tapping out of the Eddie Van Halen playbook.

The second set displayed one of modern jazz's most exhilarating groups at the height of its powers, focusing on pieces from its just-released Break Stuff. Iyer introduced the trio, with drummer Marcus Gilmore and bassist Stephan Crump, as "the result of lots of time together," evident in their seamless shifts from structured composition to complete freedom. Perhaps too much has been made of Iyer's physics education, but their interaction evoked the inner workings of a particle accelerator, with individual elements moving in dizzying arcs, interacting in stunning moments of simultaneous creation and destruction.

Seeing the two bands on one stage makes Iyer's interactions with rhythm all the more striking. His rapport with Gilmore is legendary, exemplified by the way they elaborated on the stuttering, insistent groove of "Hood." Just as mesmerizing was the way Iyer wove intricate patterns with Mitta's ricocheting fingers during Tirtha's set.