Swedish Saxophonist Mats Gustafsson founded NU Ensemble in 1997 as a setting in which free-jazz, improv, noise and contemporary classical musicians could work together in realising some of his large-scale compositions. Every release has featured a new line-up and this version of the ensemble, recorded in 2016 but only now seeing the light of day, is its eighth iteration.

The obvious reference for the ambitious 45-minute suite performed here is George Russell's ‘Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved By Nature,’ originally recorded in Norway in 1969: both are episodic journeys incorporating riffs, electronics and more abstract compositional techniques.

Gustafsson's ‘Hidros 8 – Heal’ is built around a crunching doom-rock riff which arises several times, most arrestingly when seared with Hedvig Mollestad's scorching electric guitar solo. It's punctuated by intervening interludes of glowering noise, metallic clanks, rattling percussion, freak-out electronics not dissimilar to Sun Ra's most unchained synth solos, and thickets of brass with a meaty tuba snuffling thickly among percussive reed-slaps.

Just as Russell's suite was a meditation on humankind's urgent need to find a balance with technology, Gustafsson's is an appeal for equilibrium in a world that feels out of joint. It's a timely message, presented in a pleasingly perennial format.