Michael Wollny, now a family man who teaches in academe, put lockdown to good use in April with this exhilarating solo outing – remarkably his first in the idiom. There are moments here when he seems to have four hands not two, such is his command of his instrument, while others where his sometimes eerie angular melodies create haunting reveries or lullabies of ugly beauty. Wollny describes the experience of playing solo piano as characterised by “awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation”, words used by astronaut Michael Collins as he circled the moon alone after Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin had landed on its surface. It's a vivid description as he explores aspects of “being alone” while drawing on, or being inspired by music by Tori Amos, Timber Timbre, Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly plus Alban Berg and Rudolph Hindemith (brother of you know who), a collection guaranteed to keep anyone awake at night.

But this album is not about spot-the-influence, it's about inspiration in the moment, something Wollny has become a master at of late.