The dreamy ECM pianist Benjamin Lackner brings his top quintet with trumpeter Mathias Eick to Fasching and the release concert for the new record “Spindrift.”
It was less than three years ago that the German-American pianist Benjamin Lackner painted a sensitive portrait of the present with the album “Last Decade”. The record was Lackner’s first on Manfred Eicher’s ECM, but it was far from Lackner’s debut album. However, it has been a matter of time before Lackner would be incorporated into the company. The good Benjamin already had the ECM sound in his fingers. Or Benny as he is also called in wide circles.
In January 2025, his second album will be released on ECM, “Spindrift”, through which the delicate sound painter Lackner presents his new international quintet with German trumpeter Mathias Eick, Polish saxophonist Maciej Obara, Indian-American bassist Harish Raghavan and French drummer Matthieu Chazarenc.
A record and a quartet about which Downbeat’s veteran writer Josef Woodard says:
“The glowing promise and artistic poise presented on Benjamin Lackner’s ECM debut, The Last Decade, continues and only deepens the second time around.”
Benjamin Lackner, piano
Mathias Eick, trumpet
Maciej Obara, saxophone
Harish Raghavan, double bass
Matthieu Chazarenc, drums