Album of the week: Alexi Tuomarila Trio, Departing the Wasteland, Edition

Suffused with a lilting, exuberant fired up modality

Finnish pianist and composer Alexi Tuomarila here with bassist Mats Eilertsen drummer Olavi Louhivuori guitarist Andre Fernandes and others (trombonist Gil Silva, tenorist Jose Pedro Coelho and saxist/flautist Joao Guimaraes on a few tracks each) in a core trio setting enhanced by synths and electronics & the supporting players' input.

Known for his work with Tomasz Stańko on the beautiful Dark Eyes (2009) when Jakob Bro was also in the trumpet icon's band, Stańko also had great rapport with another iconic Finn, the talismanic freedom loving drummer Edward Vesala back in the day.

Tuomarila, a magisterial, passionate, inituitively fluent player up there with progressives like Aaron Parks and Ivo Neame, is no stranger to the England based label Edition - we'd pick out Seven Hills from a decade ago as the pick of his Edition label output from the catalogue.

Fabulous flow

Tunes are the pianist's plus a couple by Eilertsen - the album was recorded in a studio located in the Portuguese city of Porto. Vinyl is out in November - but Departing the Wasteland is streaming now on Bandcamp and is our album of the week.