With regular bassist Eva Kruse taking a sabbatical following the birth of her second child, the critically acclaimed piano trio [em] is reconfigured with addition of the American bassist Tim Lefebvre and emerges as the Michael Wollny Trio. Weltentraum – rough translation, ‘we search the dreamworlds’ – is an album of standards, but not your usual standards, these are pieces by the likes of Alban Berg, Gustav Mahler, Paul Hindemith, Edgard Varese, Wolfgang Rihm, Friedrich Nietzsche and Guillaume de Mauchaut which are morphed into intense, personal statements by Wollny that are revealing of his artistic growth, musical curiosity and growing stature as an artist. The themes are linked by Wollny's initial idea of creating an album of ‘night’ songs – music with a mysterious aura of darkness and intrigue. This ‘dark’ theme enabled songs such as ‘Little Person’ by Jon Brion and Charlie Kaufman from the film Synecdoche, New York and ‘In Heaven’ by Peter Ivers and David Lynch from the film Eraserhead to be included in a remarkable, yet subtle, tour-deforce where less is more and the resources of melodic invention are craftily exploited. The odd-tuneout comes at the end – a version Pink's ‘God is a DJ’ with a vocal by Theo Bleckmann recorded live at the Philharmonie, Cologne in March 2013. Its message of optimism is a fitting epilogue to an album that already is a serious contender for the Critic's Picks of 2014.