It was less than three years ago that the German-American pianist Benjamin Lackner painted a sensitive portrait of the times with his album Last decade, which was like a healing cure to the challenges of the time. 

Back with a newly formed quintet, gathered together for a particularly fruitful 2024 session in Southern France, the pianist now presents a different side of his composer-approach that should go a step further in exposing Lackner as a force to be reckoned with in the contemporary jazz world.

Trumpeter Mathias Eick is the sole returnee from Lackner’s debut Last Decade and heard now live in striking dualism with Maciej Obara's saxophone dialect, forming a key-characteristic of the interplay that permeates Spindrift.

The horn-duo and pianist are joined by the American bass player Harish Raghavan and French drummer Matthieu Chazarenc, who was part of Lackner's trio before the pianist’s tenure with ECM.