Amanda Gardier, a young Baltimore-based alto saxophonist, won’t be a name familiar to most UK jazz listeners.

But she steps out for her third album to date with a more widely-known personnel than her previous couple of albums one of which is The Bad Plus’ percussion dynamo Dave King. While he makes his presence felt with his playfully witty, badass kit work, the guitarist Charlie Ballantine, with whom Gardier has recorded frequently as sideperson, joins crunchy, minimalistic rock music-informed riffs to a Metheny-esque lyricism when soloing. They provide a tougher, airy and more structured platform for the leader than previous recordings and Gardier sounds all the better for it, even if her sour-tone, circular themes and focussed improv on alto sax are not always that easy to warm to.

The album 'pays homage to the characters and imagery in the films of Wes Anderson’; the garish pink-coloured border around a framed portrait of the band on the CD cover echoes the maverick film director’s distinctive cinematography, and the music’s sometime whimsical yet piercing qualities likewise seems to resonate well with Gardier’s inspiration for the recording.