For close to a decade, saxophonist-composer Duncan Eagles has been a guiding influence on the structure-stretching cooperative trio Partikel, a group with a distinctive composition-centred approach, notably honed on its long Monday-nights residency at south London’s Hideaway club. Citizen, Eagles’ first release outside of the Partikel umbrella, is recognisably a close relative, but is more explicitly personal and autobiographical, at times even more structurally dense, and perhaps less inclined to let improv go wherever his quintet partners feel like taking it. The constant rhythmic and harmonic shifts of the title-track bear out Eagles’ desire to catch the tension between freedom and responsibility, of optimism in the face of challenge, that citizenship entails – the piece juggles different opening motifs, inserts and withdraws a hooky groove, introduces a new percussion-heavy melody midway in, and spurs Eagles on tenor and the eclectically experienced guitarist David Preston into imaginative, if tight-wound improvisations. ‘Riad’ (the leader’s evocation of the entwined tranquillity and freneticism of Marrakesh) is comparably hard-accented, edgy, and contrast-packed, but the spacious, slowly unfolding ‘Conquistador’ is a testament to his lyrical vision as both composer and player. The light-stepping ‘Shimmer’ and ‘Taxco’ are breezy dances, and the quivering, smoky-tenor finale, ‘Midnight Mass’, resonates with tender memories of childhood. As with Partikel, there might be too many road-signs in this music for some jazz listeners, but their emotional importance to Duncan Eagles is appealingly closer to the surface.