For someone who has set out his stall in jazz as a composer and arranger of large ensembles, most notably with his own critically acclaimed Mask Orchestra but also in a serious of good collaborations with European big bands, this is an impressive small group album. On some tracks – such as ‘Crazy Man on Platform 13’ or ‘Stand Well Back/Spit It Out’ – there is a sense of using the nimbler footwork of a small ensemble to do things that are diffi cult for a large ensemble to achieve, with deft fl ourishes from Chris Montague, Edward Maclean and Benny Greb. But it is perhaps the slower, considered pieces – ‘Another Time, Another Place’ or ‘Lost for Words’ – where this album scores. Compositional skills in jazz have not advanced as fast as technical skills, where all too often compositions are merely vehicles to set key, tempo and mood for the improvisations that follow. Towns, however, is a master of the compositional art, not only in a jazz context but for fi lms, TV and theatre where he is acknowledged as one of the best in the biz, so there is a real feeling of something taking shape here, with solos integrated into the overall arc of the composition. The cinematic quality of these slower tunes produces a dimension that is not normally the province of small groups, and it is here the strength of this new ensemble lies.