In the brief sleeve notes for his second CD for Whirlwind, recorded in New York, the Slovenian-born saxophonist-composer Jure Pukl writes about ‘music… inspired by current events (social and political)’. He mentions people's abuse of the laws of nature and life but doesn't get more detailed than that. Nevertheless, it's an inspired recording of contemporary jazz that resonates with that underlying message. Marked by a contrast that seems to parallel the opposition perhaps between nature and human beings: an airily luminous sound is generated by the quite unusual combination of guitar and vibes with superb contributions from two bright young stars: Joel Ross, the vibraphonist-of-the-moment and Charles Altura, an impressive guitar player who's been on the road with trumpeter Terence Blanchard. The thunderously percussive contribution from drummer Kweku Sumbry and leading bassist Matt Brewer provide gripping contrast. Pukl's jolting, harmonically-colourful alto sax points to his classical and rock music background as well as greats such as Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins. The more reflective ballads demonstrate the high quality of Pukl's writing and the album's only nonoriginal ‘Gloomy Sunday’ by Hungarian composer Rezso Seress has Pukl's yearning bass clarinet solo recalling, in a rare moment, the folksong of his homeland.