Faithful ECM *****

Perhaps the finest of the three albums this exceptional trio has made for ECM, this also embodies the group's virtues evident since Marcin Wasilewski (piano), Slawomir Kurkiewicz (bass) and Michal Miskiewicz (drums) first emerged internationally as trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's rhythm section. Honed over 20 years, the trio's expressiveness has evolved into a limpid directness and unity of utterance epitomised by the lyricism of Faithful, An den kleinen Radioapparatand Ballad of the Sad Young Men, ballad performances made vividly moving by their collective sense of colour, dynamics and space.

But they can also groove, have fun, paint sound pictures and tell a story all their own as they do with forceful imagination on Night Train To You, Big Foot, the quirky Woke Up In the Desertand the chordal fragments that make up the aptly named Mosaic. Superb. See marcin-wasilewski.com