Kosmos Trio, a boyish-looking contemporary Danish piano trio that came together in 2017, project a Nordic sense of airy melancholy rather than youthful high spirits. The pianist and drummer met while touring as Play!Ground, a subset of the young Danish European Jazz Orchestra. With the addition of drummer Gustav’s bassist brother Harald, they formed Kosmos Trio in pursuit of intimate collective dialogue.

This debut CD demonstrates they have already developed a strong simpatico relationship. Influences seem to range from the contemporary-classical ambient pianism of Satie to Enaudi, post-Coldplay soft rock and chilled electronica through to contemporary piano trio improv models from fellow Scandis EST and Tord Gustavsen, and to a lesser extent, the more lopsided, exotic grooves of Avishai and Tigran. It’s a chilled area of piano trio jazz made up of acoustically looping hooks, yearning arpeggio voicings through to softly hammering chords, faintly prog-y riffs and floaty melodic ideas. A sense of an organically evolving interaction gives the music a certain mystique. That and a sense of contemplative poise are probably the recording’s strongest qualities while one of their worst is a tendency to over sentimentalise. But there’s certainly a promise of better things to come and that’s all you can ask for with most debuts.