This final installment of a trilogy that began with 2003's Diasporas and 2009's Diachronism is an impressive consolidation of both the trumpetermulti-instrumentalist's musical skill and conceptual depth. An exploration of cultural duality has been the key subtext of the aforesaid releases and here the Franco-Lebanese puts an inherently personal spin on things, laying bare the essence of his own character by way of the importance that others – immediate and extended family; friends; compatriots – have in his life. Compositionally, this translates into a charged call and response between brass and voice in Maalouf's work, which means that his trumpet melodies essentially have the dancing, bracing nature of either European Gypsy or Arabic chants in which the rhythmic pull of the phrase counts as much as its harmonic substance. The predominantly Eastern base of the songs is deployed as an open, flexible fulcrum, spinning into anything from Afro-Cuban to delta blues to marching band vocabularies, without sounding contrived. It is the sharply focused use of additional instruments such as strings, tuba and guitar that makes these strands coherent rather than shallow, although the obvious failing at times is drum programming that could benefit from a less heavy, abrasive snare and a touch more polyrhythmic flourish. Yet there is no doubting the richness of Maalouf's sound world, something best illustrated by his bewitching ‘prepared’ trumpet solo on ‘Never Serious’, where the notes are bending so much they sound as if he is practically detuning his horn every other bar. Having said that, the solo on the title track, which is replete with smeared notes and harking vocalisations is also a highlight. Whether or not the bonus track ‘Beirut’, pushing the total duration to just over an hour, is needed is a moot point, but it does not detract from the inescapable fact that Ibrahim Maalouf has, in a short space of time, succeeded in making music with its own signes particuliers.