Another great release around at the moment and priority listen, dear readers… best known still for his early career work with Steve Coleman and later Dapp Theory, 55-year-old Canadian pianist Andy Milne's Juno award winning The reMission with Unison was his first landmark piano trio release. It arrived following a tumultuous period in the pianist-composer's life and three years after he by now long since in remission was diagnosed with cancer. Drummer Clarence Penn and bassist John Hébert joined Milne on that release also on US indie Sunnyside - and such a tight unit as they certainly proved return again on Time Will Tell plus the extra very well curated input in the additional ingredients instrumentally of avant saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock on four tracks and koto player Yoko Reikano Kimura again on four of the 10 tracks. The biographical theme the album is shaped around ties in with Milne's efforts to uncover his family history finally meeting his birth mother in 2022. The material is strong and highlights include magnificent pianism on 'Solotude' and a stunning track featuring Laubrock, 'Beyond the Porcelain Door'. The koto textures work extremely well in context particularly as you listen in sequence flowing on from 'Solotude' to 'Kumoi Joshi'. The reprise of the 'Lost and Found' theme is even more fascinating than its comrade track that crops up earlier on the album - because after two minutes there are intimations - although it's not we stress the same tune just sublimations of it thereof subjectively to these ears - of Sting's much covered 1980s song 'Fragile': the motif developed persuasively by Laubrock after a few minutes. Laubrock and Milne have relevantly also undertaken further explorations concerned with the word ''Fragile'' on an earlier album for the Swiss Intakt label - and in that regard do check out 2022's 'Equanimity.'

Andy Milne, photo: University of Michigan