For the past decade American saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has been gathering an impressive head of creative steam through his steady output as a bandleader and member of the collaborative group Heroes Are Gang Leaders. This twin set of releases, one by his band and the other by his quartet, confirms his status as a contemporary improvising artist with notable concepts as well as enviable chops, above all because each release is markedly different to the other. Eye Of I is possibly one of Brandon Lewis’ most ambitious albums to date: a multi-faceted affair that sees his band move seamlessly from thrashy rock laced with fizzing electronics to freewheeling, hard-hitting interludes to resplendent melodies that approach the folkish timelessness of an Ornette or Ayler, the most striking example being ‘The Blues Still Blossoms’, a gorgeously loose ramble in which the sensuality of Lewis’ broad tone takes centre stage. A soaring take on Donny Hathaway's ‘Someday We'll All Be Free’ also returns Lewis to the glowing spirituality of some of his previous work.

As for the MSM live album, it is a concert recording of the Molecular Systematic Music band that has already done excellent studio dates, such as Code of Being in recent years, and emphatically consolidates the deep musical empathy Lewis has established with pianist Aruan Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones and drummer Chad Taylor. There is an added intensity to what the group does on stage, especially when they take the tempo down, primarily because there is such a carefully paced, tightly controlled energy in the life cycle of each piece, and Lewis proves himself to be a master ballad player many times over. Yet this is very much about an ensemble as well as a soloist, and the swirl of polyrhythms and vaguely Spanish flavours that mark many tracks, not to mention the strength and fluidity of the Taylor-Jones axis, is as crucial to the work as the finesse of Ortiz's chords and the dignified grace of Lewis’ themes, which have the depth of a blues for the 21st century. A significant artist just got more significant.