In a 2006 interview for All About Jazz written by Joao Moriera dos Santos, pianist/keyboardist Benjamin Lackner was asked: "What label would you like to be on in the near future?" He said, simply, "ECM." That seemed ambitious for Lackner at that stage of his career. He was 29 years old at the time and boasted only two albums under his own name—one of them was Sign Of The Times (Nagel Heyer, 2006), released a bit before the interview—along with a couple of sideman credits on recordings by the group Maroon, featuring vocalist Hillary Maroon. But he offered up plenty of proof of his ability to fit into the prestigious ECM label's wide-open stable in the years after the interview went down, releasing four more excellent albums, including Cachuma (BHM Productions, 2012), Siskiyou (Unit Records, 2015), and Drake (Ozella Music, 2019).

The time span between 2006 to 2022 is a long one, but Benjamin Lackner must have believed in himself and his dream; in 2022 that ECM Records dream comes true, with Last Decade, an album that may surprise those familiar with Lackner's previous recordings.

Lackner goes into a gear shift here. His previous recordings have all featured a piano trio, with liberal use of electronics, somewhat in the mode of early