Like his former playing partner and fellow concept-bender John Zorn, the Seattle-based player/composer Wayne Horvitz has walked a creative line between tough improv, pop-savvy accessibility and classic jazz references, with edgy experiments cohabiting alongside a cool understatement not always far from lounge music. The Snowghost Sessions is almost an orthodox jazz trio set (save for the raft of electronics complementing the leader’s acoustic piano), comprising 14 short pieces of frequently haunting lyrical appeal – it’s also Horvitz’ first trio since the one he shared with Butch Morris and William Parker in the 1980s. The pieces are a mix of fragments from his film scores, chamber music, and new and old themes, largely played in a relaxed, agenda-free negotiation between the participants. Dreamy piano themes unfold amid quietly contrasting metallic effects, ballad-like sways are gently tugged at by spacey whirrs, quietly gospelly melodies open out in fluid Jarrett-reminiscent variations, balefully hooky acoustic tunes get unexpectedly strafed by raw noise and hounded by fast walking-bass lines. The slow-gospel backbeat and Hammond textures under the minimal motif of ‘Northampton’ testifies to the deceptive simplicity of some of Horvitz’ songwriting here, and there are a couple of dark, stealthy, occasionally jazzy variations on music from his 2014 installation project ‘55: Music and Dance in Concrete’. This is a set rammed with mostly quiet surprises, and Harper and Eagle are ideal empathic fellow-travellers across Horvitz’ private landscapes.