Trumpeter Dan Rosenboom's latest of more than 20 albums blends the composed, through-improvised and post produced – mixer/engineer Justin Stanley's keen ear, honed by working with Prince and Beck, delivers clarity and thrust. Compositions range from the helter-skelter, technically demanding ‘A Paper Tiger’ to the avant-boogie of 'Minotaur'; and the rhythm section matches the leader's powerful free-flowing approach.

The set begins with ‘The Age of Snakes’, a 19-minute free improvisation that opens with elegiac trumpet soaring over firmly riffing bass and pianist John Escreet filling in the spaces of a sparse drum pulse; the piece unfolds as a series of ebb-and flow vignettes. A second free improvisation, the atmospheric ‘Tidal Mirror’, features sheens of Escreet electronica on the album's penultimate track.

The rest of the album presents six fine-crafted Rosenboom compositions that find the leader's technical poise matching the band's empathy and drive. The trumpeter combines the focus of the classically trained with the expressive power of left-field jazz – credits include the LA Philharmonic, 200-plus film scores and, immediately before this album was recorded, the late Wayne Shorter's opera Iphigenia. But the trumpeter is equally in-demand in creative music and this band lets his poised musicianship and edge-of-seat improv flourish.

Escreet's fluid piano sustains ‘Walking Shadows’, his abstract trills power ‘War Money’ and subtle voicings cushion the ballad ‘On Summoning the Will’. Bassist Billy Mohler, like the leader, has multiple careers – credits range from Dolly Parton to Lady Gaga and Macy Gray – and locks in brilliantly with Damion Reid's no-holds-barred rhythmic drive. The feisty band is completed by saxophonist Gavin Templeton who harmonises well, but is at his best on baritone sax.