The great UK pianist Liam Noble has performed in many guises – as an unaccompanied improviser, as an inspired covers-specialist reinventing standard songs or Dave Brubeck hits (to the late legend's own grateful fascination in 2009), as an original composer, or a perceptive sideman. But The Long Game is a departure even for someone as restlessly curious as him. Noble is joined here by Polar Bear's bassist Tom Herbert and drummer Sebastian Rochford – meeting to explore the long-game agenda of a spacier, looser, intentionally unhurried reappraisal of the broad cross-genre experiences of all three. Polar Bear-ish ambiguities of rhythm and abstract-to-songlike blends mingle with creative electronics, hints of Monk or electric Miles, programmed effects that sound like prepared-pianos. ‘Rain On My Birthday’, with its tramping beat and pitch-bending keyboard chording, is a terrific fusion of the funky and the harmonically wacky. ‘Unmemoried Man’ (a nod to neurologist Oliver Sacks) turns quietly spiky piano reflections into three-way rhythm conundrums. ‘Head of Marketing’, a rocking dirge, evokes a bluesy John Scofield-like sound through guitar-mimicking synths while the inspired Rochford trips and lurches around the beat. ‘Pink Mice’, for entrancingly contrapuntal, Mehldauesque acoustic piano swelling to a churning ensemble jam is a highlight, but so are the gently reflective episodes, such as ‘Between You And Me’, and ‘Head Over Heels’. This is unquestionably a trip into Noble's, Herbert's and Rochford's sometimes mysterious private worlds – but all three are so good, it still feels like an open invitation.