German pianist Julia Hülsmann can be a private, almost secretive artist as well as an empathic accompanist (memorably applying the latter skill to Kurt Weill songs with Theo Bleckmann last year) – but Sooner and Later draws her long-running trio into some explicitly jazzy moods, when they aren’t sounding fascinated by world music references from recent tours, notably to central Asia. The band consistently speak with one voice (she and bassist Marc Muellbauer often drop in and out of unison passages), and the coalescing conversation of From Afar epitomises that in its brief piano motifs, answering double bass, and slowly gelling harmonies. Hülsmann’s meditative dynamism resonates through Thatpujai (formed of solo phrases by the late German jazz pianist Jutta Hipp); drummer Heinrich Köbberling’s You & You becomes almost Jarrett-like; the Kyrgyzstan folk tune Biz Joluktuk is classically delicate; JJ is relaxed and boppish, and Radiohead’s All I Need suggests Hülsmann has listened to Brad Mehldau’s investigations of the same source. It’s a quietly classy and vivacious set.
