A SPECIAL HEADS UP for marlbank readers here, to be issued on Kurt Rosenwinkel’s independent label Heartcore Records, is a quite extraordinary record called ELEW plays Rosenwinkel: Cubism, a solo piano affair to be released on 19 July.

The title track dates back to Rosenwinkel 1990s album Yam Yam while other material includes selections from the guitarist’s 2001 album The Next Step.

ELEW, pictured above [photo: Anna Yatskevich], is a powerful, extravagant player. He does not tickle the notes: he slams into them and he manages to draw out the drama in all the thematic shifts and jolts he encounters while this former Monk competition-winning pianist has tremendous harmonic resource in store and a bluesy grasp of the bigger picture that transports the listener into his own individual world.

This is not a solo piano album where you are afraid to breathe for fear of upsetting the Trappist-like silence of proceedings but there is subtlety too. ELEW stood out on the recent Theo Croker album Star People Nation but this is so much deeper than that tantalising glimpse. Look out for it.