A good decade and a half into his career the French flautist remains something of an enigma. His virtuosity is not in doubt, and he is arguably one of the great contemporary soloists on his instrument, yet Malik contrives to straddle genres more than ever, which may be a good thing for listeners seeking adventure and a bad thing for genre police intent on patrolling borders. This latest album sees Malik move towards contemporary dance music, particularly house, more boldly than he has done on previous releases, and although drummer Hubert Motteau is an important component of the music, it is really the beats constructed by DJ Oil and Gilbert Nouno that largely define the arrangements. The presence of the machine is strong. Certainly from the opener ‘Montreuil Market’ right through to the epic closer ‘Chunky Delice’, the hard, robust quantization of the groove takes pride of place, and Malik the soloist is not as prominent as he has been in times past. The writing is mostly good, though there are occasionally moments when the bleaknesscoldness quotient of the studio sound could be lessened a touch. Overall, a shadowy, often fraught ambiance prevails. Having said that, Malik throws a quite delicious curveball in the air in the shape of ‘Dark Stone’, where he goes into proper deep house mode á la Theo Parrish. The piece is enhanced by a misty, eerie lead vocal that is quite unlike the soaring, operatic style that has graced his other albums. Some might be unsettled by this change of direction, but Malik has a deep engagement with pop culture, and there is a freshness and vigour in this work that all open minds should appreciate.