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Last year's disc by Sweden's Esbjorn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.) - keyboardist Svensson with double bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Ostrom- shared favorable comparisons with Nor'eastern groovemasters Medeski Martin & Wood. 

While the gang in MMW are perpetually lacquered to '60s-era soul-jazz jaunts, EST's American debut (actually a compilation of three foreign albums) suggested hints of modern electronica with unusual sound treatments and elementary dubbing. Their new album is more straight-ahead in its jazz configuration- Svensson manning a grand piano for the majority of tracks, while Bergland and Ostrom are noticeably earthy with a softer timbre. 

Strange Place For Snow is swayed by an unusual origin. Like the detached, distant temperment of Scandinavian keyboard players Bobo Stenson and Rainer Bruninghaus, there is an emphasis on cold, barren atmospheres, as well as a certain dark simplicity to the songs' changes. The ECM label literally built its fortune on such a plain foundation- like steam rising  off a frozen lake while the ice was cracking underneath. Very natural, yet quietly disturbing- and nearly always with an unsuspected tension. 

While EST work mostly with softly cascading, minor-keyed themes (like the majestic "Bound For The Beauty Of The South" here), there are a few examples where they venture beyond. Like the abrupt rolling, up-and-down intervals of the Chick Corea-inspired "When God Created The Coffeebreak," to comping the clever, funky breaks of "Spunky Sprawl," to the Afro-Gospel set-up  (and its nod to Randy Weston) of "The Message" that says more with a few elementary piano chords and soft brushes on a snare drum than most any social rhetoric. 

Knowing when not to play (rather than not knowing what to play) has become a code for this soft-spoken band. You'll know THAT when you hear it.