Benjamin Lackner, Circular Confidence, ECM ****

Track of the day for a second time: we keep going back to the track: the unique touch of famed French drummer Manu Katché lifts the interest here significantly on a plangent ballad the melody led by the fine Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick. …

Published: 2 Oct 2022. Updated: 18 months.

Track of the day for a second time: we keep going back to the track: the unique touch of famed French drummer Manu Katché lifts the interest here significantly on a plangent ballad the melody led by the fine Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick. German-American pianist Benjamin ''Benny'' Lackner is classy but a little anonymous in his soloing at first. That changes rapidly journeying into a Wasilewskian universe a world that Katché knows well however as the piece unfolds the interest certainly enhanced by the harmonic detail provided by French bassist Jérôme Regard. And so eventually the hypnotic appeal of the dreamy trumpet line on top achieves a certain convincing melancholia.

Lackner was born in Berlin in 1976 and moved to the US in his early teens before returning to Germany in the late-2000s. He's had a trio for two decades involving Regard here. The full record Last Decade from which this introductory piece is drawn and Lackner's first for the label consisting largely of his own originals is out in mid-October. We'll bring you a full album review on release.

The Benjamin Lackner quartet l-r Mathias Eick, Benjamin Lackner, Manu Katché, Jérôme Regard. Photo: bennylackner.com

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Village of the Sun feat. Binker and Moses, Tigris, Gearbox *****

Beautiful spiritual jazz here couched in electronica and Pharaoh-esque - the Dem Ones deities plus hitmakers Basement Jaxx's Simon Ratcliffe the whole sound bathed in a benevolent wash, intimations of piano, harp, deep rumblings, a liquidy circle …

Published: 1 Oct 2022. Updated: 18 months.

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Beautiful spiritual jazz here couched in electronica and Pharaoh-esque - the Dem Ones deities plus hitmakers Basement Jaxx's Simon Ratcliffe the whole sound bathed in a benevolent wash, intimations of piano, harp, deep rumblings, a liquidy circle in the round Binker Golding going Trane-like later and Moses Boyd steadily tunnelling further behind the beat - 'Tigris' is new in 1 luv, track-of-the-day. Tactile, humane, relevant. Up there with the very different 'Feed Infinite' from the tail end of last year.