A formidable reeds soaked chamber jazz vision from clarinettist, bass clarinettist, composer and bandleader Rebecca Trescher out today. Born in Tübingen in 1986, down the years Trescher has sought inspiration in figures as various as Björk, Bob Brookmeyer, Miles Davis and Radiohead. A long since risen star on the vigorously competitive German jazz scene, Trescher won a 2022 Deutscher and possibly may have to instal a bigger mantlepiece given how compelling this tentet recording Character Pieces proves however subjectively. Certainly a significant composer, this Enja recording finds Trescher, who has written the vast majority of the Character Pieces material, in the playing company of trumpeter/flugel player Julian Hesse; tenor saxist & flautist Joachim Lenhardt; clarinettist, alto & soprano saxist Markus Harm; alto saxist, flautist, harpist Anton Mangold; cellist Juri Kannheiser vital on 'The Cloud Walker'; pianist Andreas Feith; vibist Roland Neffe (also important on 'The Cloud Walker' - one of the stand out tracks); bassist Christian Diener and drummer Silvio Morger. Feith composed 'Aussichtsreich'. Pieces vary in length - the longest clocks in at more than 10 minutes for 'Nacht' which is placed as the centrepiece of the album. The harp meditation 'Prélude,' which makes us think of a Ravel reverie somehow, is a shade under 2-and-a-half minutes by contrast. The way the deep resonances that flicker magically on 'Wildwasser' and unearth Trescher in complete communion with Lenhardt is for us the track that we gravitated to most. Elsewhere the album is not without its airy lightnesses of touch and even a Nikki Ilesian sense of arranging captured in some of the voicings in passages of 'Le Moutardier.' Rebecca Trescher, photo: Dovile Sermokas