The 60-year-old German bassist Ilg has worked with many and varied leaders such as Randy Brecker, Charlie Mariano, Albert Mangelsdorff and Till Brönner, and like many of his generation, has had a classical training. Perhaps that explains why two of these 12 individual 'dedications' are named for Bach and Beethoven, whereas other dedicatees include Mariano and Nat Adderley along with two fellow bassists, Peter Kowald and Mingus. Apparently the pieces were recorded without any subject-matter in mind and only named afterwards, for instance to subjects as general as 'the earth' and 'a world of freedom…' and to the artist’s mother.

This 36-minute bass recital is more listenable than many, thanks to the relative brevity of most tracks and to the variety of textures: only a couple of tracks have any overdubbing, with, for instance. a repeated line backing either a bowed improvisation or a mildly funky solo.

There’s definitely some virtuosic playing from time to time but, as in the pizzicato harmonics of ‘No Manipulation No Corruption’, it’s all in the service of [better]communication.