ISKRA might be remembered as a leading Scandinavian improv group of the 1970s and 1980s, but this recording comes from a reunion gig in 2003. Despite the title, and the fact that the band took their name from a Russian socialist newspaper, this is no firebrand rallying cry. The four-piece make music that is textural and tentative, as well as multi-faceted: although primarily drawing on sax, percussion and, er, double double bass, the musicians share credits for everything from toy guitar synth to ‘armpit farts’. The liner notes apply the French revolutionary slogan primarily to the music itself: liberty from musical structures, equality rather than a hierarchy of soloist and accompanist. When it comes to the final third of the triptych, the liner notes open out, to celebrate ‘the ongoing struggle for equal rights for all humans around the world’. But this too could be applied to the recording: an appealingly human take on a music that can, especially on record rather than on stage, lack a pulse.