This new disc from Scandinavian saxophonist Harald Lassen has already picked up the equivalent of a Grammy nomination (a Spellemann) in his native Norway. It begins sounding as if caught between sleeping and waking, with the woozily wistful ‘Before You Came', and ends between waking and sleeping on ‘Pillow Talk’, a percussively propelled romantic exhalation that swells suddenly into nothingness – dissolving into a dream of velvety repletion, perhaps. In between, Lassen and his collaborators create a very complete sound world, built on the wonderful interplay between Lassen and pianist/synth player Bram De Looze and full of evanescent musical echoes: there's a suggestion of French pop duo Air on the closer, and a bit of classic Soft Machine in the diaphragm-expanding exercise of the opener. There's a touch of Bachian baroque elaboration on the fugue-like ‘How It Feels Pt. 2’.

The music is both reassuringly melodic and consistently, disruptively exploratory. The only slightly false note, to my ears, is the introduction of a speaker on ‘About Music’, telling you how to listen. I would say the music already does all the explaining necessary.