The quintet members have an easy familiarity with one another that allows them to make music of a restrained, even fragile beauty…Andy Milne (piano), Drew Gess (bass) and Marker Ferber (drums) create a shifting, ephemeral sound that permeates the whole album.

Alessi sees the ECM traditions of meditative patience and sonic detail as presenting new challenges to this long-bonded group’s modus operandi, and that much is evident in the attentive empathy of the improvising, and the tantalising pacing of the compositions. On ‘Iram Issela’, Alessi’s lovely sound gently unfolds a long, delicately skipping intro of quick runs and gleaming falsetto notes over the restrained piano chording of Andy Milne (an Alessi associate from their time together in Steve Coleman’s groups), and Coltrane slowly exhales a tenor solo of swelling heat as Mark Ferber’s drumming builds to a long-postponed ensemble theme. The slow-rocking, distantly Kenny Wheeler-ish ‘Oxide’ and the stealthily bass-introduced, free-floating title-track confirm how closely bonded Alessi and Coltrane are when soloing together, while ‘Fun Room’ shows just how deviously and infectiously swinging this band can be. Imaginary Friends raises an already high bar for Ralph Alessi on ECM.