Benjamin Lackner, Mathias Eick, Mark Turner, Linda May Han Oh, Matthieu Chazarenc

LP version. Spindrift is the second ECM album by the German-American pianist Benjamin Lackner, and the first by his quintet with two horns in front. Trumpet and tenor saxophone carry most of the melodies, often as a small section of their own, while the leader keeps his piano solos sparing. The ten pieces are short and tuneful, nine by Lackner and one by his drummer, and the line between what is written and what is improvised is often hard to hear.

Trumpeter Mathias Eick is the only player returning from Lackner's ECM debut Last Decade (2022). He is joined by Mark Turner on tenor saxophone, Linda May Han Oh on double bass and the French drummer Matthieu Chazarenc, who had played in Lackner's trio before his time with the label. The quintet recorded in March 2024 at Studios La Buissonne in Pernes-les-Fontaines, with Gérard de Haro engineering and Manfred Eicher producing. Lackner had written close to a hundred tunes and brought about twenty to the session.

Lackner says composing is a form of meditation for him, and he hears hope alongside the darker undercurrents of the music. The title track sets the reeds forward at the start, then lets the piano move through its registers over cymbals. Chazarenc's Chambary, three minutes long, is the most upbeat piece, full of sudden leaps. Ahwahnee takes its name from the region around Yosemite and gives a prominent role to Oh's bass. The closing Out of the Fog is, in Lackner's words, a journey "from confusion to clarity", resolving into a hymn-like ensemble passage.

In The Guardian, John Fordham described "breathily wistful, bass-embroidered film-noirish melodies" mingling with "headlong tenor/trumpet contrapuntal passages, and sleek and sparing piano improv". For Jack Kenny in All About Jazz, the compatibility of Turner and Eick sits at the heart of the record: "This is a jazz equivalent of chamber music." Stephen Graham in Marlbank preferred Last Decade by a little, while still finding many compelling tunes here.

This edition is the vinyl LP, ECM 2832, issued in March 2025; the album first came out on CD in January 2025. The cover image is by Fidel Sclavo.