As a jazz drummer Martin France needs no introduction – he has been at the top of the UK jazz world for some 40 years now – but describing Leo Abrahams as a jazz guitarist is more problematic. Firstly, he rejects the label himself and, secondly, he deploys his instrument through the processing wonderland of production software Ableton Live, using complex patching to trigger intricate and evolving patterns of layered sound.

The improvised music of Krononaut plays out these digital soundscapes – simultaneously both mechanical and organic in nature – in a dialectic process with France’s purely acoustic percussion. Unlike their 2020 debut album which featured guest appearances from Arve Henriksen and Matana Roberts, among others, the four tracks on Krononaut II offer the duo’s music unadorned, emphasising tonal texture and spacial interaction.

Apparently there’s a meditative inspiration from Sufi traditions but, thanks to France’s questioning creativity and Abrahams’ electronic sophistication, it never subsides into the repetitions of ‘mindfulness’ music or ambient longeurs. Instead the continuously processing dialogue of tracks like ‘Spindle’, with its church bell-like descending theme, or the gentle subsidence of oddly named ‘PGC 20513’, hold the listener’s attention throughout.