Finnish pianist Alexi Tuomarila made a good trio album for Edition in 2013, and now brings his Belgian saxophone sidekick, Nicolas Kummert, to the UK label – a 15-year partnership that begun when they were rising European twentysomethings with a shortlived Warners contract. Their comeback as Drifter reunites them with Belgian drummer Teun Verbruggen alongside new bassist Axel Gilain, and Flow’s eight originals and one Sting adaptation (King of Pain) expand on their collective knack for invitingly simple-sounding music concealing enticing ambiguities. The generic-sounding piano ostinato that opens Crow Hill, for instance, ushers in a drily looping tenor sax line with an unexpectedly skittish countermelody from Kummert. Harmattan sounds like Thus Spake Zarathustra played by a band trying not to wake a baby; Breathing Out My Soul is 21st-century blues; and Tuomarila’s Vagabond has a quiet vivacity in its gently perky sax theme. Drifter also attractively use repeating-chorus vocals as changing backdrops for instrumental improv, and a palpable warmth and intelligent empathy pervade their set.
