Recently Berlin-based pianist Julia Hülsmann applied her skills to the Kurt Weill songbook and associated pieces for a project with singer Theo Bleckmann and trumpeter/flugelhornist Tom Arthur, A Clear Midnight. But here, on Sooner and Later, she returns to her more familiar, more stripped-back mode, the piano trio. The group, which includes regular collaborators Marc Muellbauer on bass and Heinrich Köbberling on drums, have been touring far and wide of late, and their voyaging – from Europe to the Americas and into Central Asia and China – finds aural expression here, not least in ‘Biz Joluktuk’, a tune they heard performed by a 12-year-old violinist in Kyrgyzstan. Less exotically there's a cover of Radiohead's ‘All I Need’ (all jazzers do Radiohead nowadays). There's also a track by Hülsmann called ‘Thatpujai’ which is almost an anagram of ‘Jutta Hipp’ and which is made up of phrases of the aforementioned pianist's solos. All the trio members contribute tunes, and the playing is sparkling: inventive, empathetic, and full of wit and passion.