Neil Cowley records with Adele and Emeli Sande

With Adele's album 21 being this year's global chart topper and the biggest selling album of the decade, pianist Neil Cowley is - quite literally – the most listened to pianist on the planet this year. Add to that his contributions to the forthcoming release from Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sande who was announced the winner of the 2012 Brits Critics Choice award recently, plus recording sessions with its runner-up Michael Kiwanuka, it's no surprise that Cowley is the go-to piano man.

Yet his is not a name you're likely to see in too many of next year's CD sleeve credits. For Cowley's passion lies with his own band, the Neil Cowley Trio, an award-winning piano, bass and drums outfit whose jazz-meets-rock ethic have earned him a raft of plaudits across the musical spectrum.

A dazzling composer and advocate of pure audacious melody, Cowley creates thrilling music defined by powerful rip-roaring riffs punctuated by passages of sheer delicacy.

On 23rd January 2012, the Neil Cowley Trio release their new recording, The Face of Mount Molehill (Naim), recorded for the first time with a string ensemble. This album of deeply engaging instrumental music, whose passion and emotion defies the need for words, looks set to launch the music of Neil Cowley yet further into the listening public's consciousness.