The Leipzig-based pianist Michael Wollny has been the main attraction of the ACT label's stable of emerging German jazz musicians for over a decade now. His superb contemporary piano trio [em]'s releases since 2005 are of particular relevance, as are his duets with veteran saxophonist Heinz Sauer. Here are two simultaneously released albums by his current trio, featuring drummer Eric Schaefer from [em] and the bassist Christian Weber. Recorded within just a week of each other, Oslo and Wartburg are nevertheless not-so-close musically speaking. Oslo is a studio album and features the Norwegian Wind Ensemble led by Geir Lysne, who's also released some very notable ACT recordings of his own with his Listening Ensemble. Wollny's compositions and arrangements range from contemporary chamber classical to Jarrett-like grooving and Schaefer and Lysne pitch in among the rearrangements of classical pieces by Debussy and Hindemith. But it's a more controlled context than Wartburg which is a ‘live’ recording, celebrating ACT's 25th anniversary last year, in which the trio really stretch out. Recorded in the eponymous church of the title, Wartburg focuses on the organic collective interaction and close chemistry of Wollny's trio on tracks that shift from a classical-percussive way outness on ‘Antonym’ through to Schaefer's low-slung hip hop beats on the trio's rearrangement of Paul Hindemith's ‘Interludium’. The enigmatic art-pop artist Scott Walker is underrepresented in the jazz canon, so it's good to hear Wollny tackle the ballad ‘Big Louise’ with his own impressionistic take on Walker's resigned introspection. The guest French saxophonist Emile Parisien, who Wollny partnered in ACT's young wacky Euro-jazz supergroup Out of Land, climaxes with a Coltrane-ish soprano on Schaefer's ‘Tektonik’. Wartburg is definitely the pick of the two, but this is a release bundle that convincingly contrasts Wollny's diverse talents.