The influential alto saxophonist Tim Berne is prominently featured here in a quartet led by a young Italian drummer Ananda Gari featuring a few highly regarded left field contemporary New York-based musicians. Launching his debut on the dependable Italian indie Auand, Gari's role switches from grunge rock-fuelled grooving with vigorous support from bassist Michael Formanek (an associate of Tim Berne's going back a couple of decades to the cult band Bloodcount) through to a more obliquely melodic, free-improv approach. The LA-bred guitarist Rez Abbasi is one of the most notable musicians of South Asian origin asserting his multi-lingual identity at the vanguard of the New York scene. His display of his folk roots is often tender and he can also crank up the volume while remaining elegant. It's the kind of harmonically jarring contemporary electric jazz recording that might prove hard work rather than pleasurable to the average jazz listener's ears. But Tim Berne fans are likely to lap it up.