If solo piano can be a rewarding gig because of the wealth of harmonic possibilities that the keyboard can offer then it can be exhilarating when a musician is brave enough not to avail himself of them. Doing little through choice is not the same as doing little through obligation. On several occasions on this beguiling, often icily beautiful set, New York-based pianist Craig Taborn creates such clarity through economy that the notes become comets in a broad expanse of night sky. On ‘Diamond Turning Dream’ he illuminates two soft legato notes with a kind of afterglow of two mid range notes that are then punctuated by sharp, high single notes, still in groups of two, with the attack increasing incrementally while a low chord discreetly ambles in, almost like a puffing tuba to the piercing trumpet of the other notes. On first listening, it appears an exercise in focused minimalism, how to create interest through spare phrasing but on repeat listening what comes through loud and clear is the way the whole performance amounts to a melody, but one that forms from fragments and flashes, the constituent parts building into a whole that reveals a bit more each time you lend an ear. Clarity may be something of a guiding principle but it in no way restricts the expressive spectrum of this work, which means that there is a more or less polar opposite to the aforesaid piece in the form of ‘Glossolalia’, which is a series of see saw like motifs that heave up and down with constant momentum, the lines regularly tightening into rapid sixteenth or thirty second notes that acquire some of the liquid, rushing quality of an old analogue synthesiser. Taborn's engagement with electronica, through work with Detroit techno hero Carl Craig to New York jazz kingpin Tim Berne, has possibly fed into his work here but perhaps of greater importance is the way that he draws together strands of African-American jazz vocabulary, European classical music and movie theme sensibilities so that echoes of anybody from Muhal Richard Abrams and Webern to Richard Teitelbaum and David Sancious are heard at various points. Yet there is an overriding sense that Taborn is not strictly concerned with the canon of jazz piano but is ultimately trying to capture something of many instruments, genres and simply new sounds within a solo piano framework. Pulling that off requires vision and strength of character as well as advanced technique and listening skills. Craig Taborn duly exhibits all of the above on this concentrated, compelling statement.