Here's an exceptional debut recording from a 25-year-old Norwegian tenor/soprano saxophonist, who was Django Bates' star pupil at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Denmark. The ‘saxophone’ album is a rare happening these days, something that seems to have gone out of fashion or run out of vitality. But there's everything to suggest the opposite here is the case. Neset leads from the front with his horn, evoking something of the virile, extroverted work of the late Michael Brecker. This isn't just about blowing though; Neset's originals are convincingly well-structured, as is the classical-influenced concept behind the track listing itself, and it's stuffed with so many thrilling new ideas. He plays sax solo on a few tracks but can make one horn sound like two or three, by toying with register, meter and accent while barking edge-of-the-seat percussive Frank Zappa-ish phrases. But in spite of the album containing its fair share of these kind of high-octane note-avalanches, Neset is equally compelling playing in a more sensuous R&B-jazz mode (though always with a twist) or tender and reflective as on the Garbarek-ish ‘Epilogue’ or on ‘Saxophone Intermezzo II’, a track on which Neset overdubs a Julian Arguelles-like hymnal choir of saxes. Django Bates is a perfect accomplice, and it's great to hear him plugged in, improvising on fairground organ-ish sounding synths/keys, as last heard on his brilliant big band StoRMChaser 2009 CD, which also featured Neset. The Phronesis rhythm section of Danish-London bassist Jasper Høiby and Swedish drummer Anton Eger make their presence felt, though everything is kept in check by Neset's clarity of vision, adding and subtracting from the instrumentation with daring throughout the album.