Benjamin Lackner
Last Decade

Benjamin Lackner piano
Mathias Eick trumpet
Jérôme Regard double bass
Manu Katché drums
Recorded September 2021 at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines
Engineer: Gérard de Haro
Mastering: Nicolas Baillard
Cover photo: Woong Chul An
Produced by Manfred Eicher
Release date: October 14, 2022

Benjamin Lackner makes a soft yet profound splash on Last Decade, his ECM debut. With Mathias Eick on trumpet, Jérôme Regard on bass, and Manu Katché on drums, the German-American pianist lays the groundwork for a quartet of wide imagination, forging a new relationship that is sure to grow over the next decade.

Lackner’s compositions are fertile ground for his bandmates. “Where Do We Go From Here” plants rows of seeds from the start, watering them in the same breath. Eick’s lyricism is given plenty of breathing room while the rhythm section snakes its way along like a shadow over rock and river. This mood (and mode) will be familiar to many ECM listeners, taking two steps inward for each outward.

But then, something happens as Katché’s groove in “Circular Confidence” opens up a much wider vista. Trading introspection for charity, it imbues Regard’s bassing with a lithe spirit as Lackner flips the landscape like the page of a book to reveal side quests galore. Foremost among them in Eick’s sojourn into distant cities and towns. Rather than bring us souvenirs, he returns with a travelogue. More tractions await in the enigmatically titled “Hung Up On That Ghost,” wherein Katché and Regard tessellate with unforced enchantment. Lackner and Eick give faith to form, the latter’s wordless vocals emblematic of a larger unity at play.

Although Lackner is more accustomed to solo and trio settings, Eick keeps in step as a natural ally. Lifting and lowering throughout “Camino Cielo,” he paints their relationship in streaks of gold and silver, his light as much a partner in the music as what is obscured by proxy. The title track is another collective journey marked by subtly daring harmonies and family memories. So, too, is the closing “My People.” Its staggered 11/4 time signature gives the listener plenty to meditate on.

Between them are three briefer excursions. Whereas “Remember This” is for the trio alone and finds Katché exchanging delicacies, “Open Minds Lost” offers the band’s fullest statement. All that remains is “Émile,” a freely improvised solo from Regard named after his son. Like the album as a whole, it pulls at the threads of life and weaves from them a tapestry of stories to be preserved for those who will outlive us.