Russian-born and classically trained, Konkova crossed her personal Rubicon when she went to study at Berklee, met her future husband (bassist Mathisen) there and moved with him to Norway. Now in her early 50s, she has a large catalogue of recordings, including three that were released here on the Candid label, in which her drummers have included such luminaries as Adam Nussbaum, Jon Christensen and Gary Husband. Which brings us to this new album, where Husband plays a supportive and quite prominent role in enlivening Konkova’s relatively minimal but captivating thematic material.

There’s sufficient variety among the 12 tracks, and her playing (mostly on acoustic piano but with a few instances of electric keyboard) is intelligently absorbing without being flamboyant. The hooks on items such as the opener ‘Hymn For My Brother’ and the diverting ‘No Rules’ aren’t overly obvious, but they certainly do enough to stimulate the players and the listener.