Seven years on from their previous album, pianist Neil Cowley’s trio returns, sounding strong and unified. The piano is the main voice, of course, but this is a group effort, with Cowley and double bassist Rex Horan threading figures and lines together over drummer Evan Jenkins’ variously insistent or relaxed (but always steady) presence.

Cowley has never pursued the conventional jazz-piano-trio melody-solos-melody format and there are times when his music, with its repetitive motifs, feels unresolved, even episodic as a result. The title (and final) track here is a mite anticlimactic. That apart, though, Cowley is a master of mood, and on cuts such as the determinedly slow-paced, aptly named ‘Brood’ and the more swashbuckling, carefree ‘Shoop’, Cowley incorporates a songwriter’s style of development. On the latter piece, with its joyous build-up, it’s almost as if the trio is playing in anticipation of Adele showing up to record a vocal (Cowley provided keyboards on her mega-hit ‘Rolling In The Deep’).

Elsewhere, there is a sense of longing on ‘Photo Box’, where the simple, elegant melody depicts a nostalgic look through the box’s contents, and on ‘V&A’, Cowley’s arpeggiated progression suggests an art gallery visitor’s varying responses to the exhibits: now amused, now moved, now grandly impressed. As well as the acoustic instruments, subtly introduced electronic effects add to the atmosphere and personality of the music, with voices from a radio skipping through the stations accompanying the confiding ‘Those Claws’ and mysterious colourings fading in and out of ‘Father Daughter’.

Overall, Entity exudes control and restraint. Cowley has a lovely touch and, free of the bombast that can feature in the trio’s live performance, this album reveals a composer creating music that’s understated but still varied in colour and character.

Entity is released by Hide Inside Records on Friday 20 September; main picture: Tom Barnes.