Bassist Petros Klampanis, based both in his native Athens, Greece and also New York, has earned acclaim as “a formidable player and composer” (JazzTimes) and “a musician who has always spoken from the heart” (Downbeat).

Irrationalities, his fourth outing as a leader, his second crowdfunded album (after Minor Dispute), his first ever with a trio and his first release for the storied German label Enja, speaks to his persistent reality of living across two cultures, of “being up in the air all the time,” as he describes it. In a life that can feel unmoored at times, Klampanis’ trio with pianist Kristjan Randalu and drummer/percussionist Bodek Janke provides all the anchoring solidity he could ever need. “I feel that I discovered my musical family with these two musicians,” the bassist says.

The program is original except for “Thalassa Platia” (“wide sea”), a classic Greek ballad by the great Manos Hadjidakis (“the Jobim of Greece,” in Klampanis’ estimation), arranged for the trio in 5/4. And the Levant/Heyman standard “Blame It on My Youth” receives a treatment in the Bulgarian kopanitsa rhythm of 11/8 (4-3-4), pointing the heartrending ballad in a more ambiguously groovy direction.