A polished performance at last year's Proms, in the intimate setting of the Elgar Room, showed that Mullov-Abbado's ensemble was mature beyond its tender years, and this album reinforces that favourable impression. The group draws on the range of vocabulary used by the more progressive players in contemporary jazz, hence a strong root in swing branches out to more meditative, less rhythmically strident arrangements elsewhere, with Mullov-Abbado's liking for both spiky soundscapes and airy, pastoral moods coming to the fore. Yet while the session has accomplished soloists and experienced guests in the form of string players, Victoria Mullova and Matthew Barley, it is really the ensemble voice that is the record's strong point, and the added cohesion and overall sense of purpose may have been aided by the steady producer's hand of Julian Joseph. Whoever was minded to suggest the cover of Earth, Wind & Fire's ‘September’ in any case, deserves another accolade, as the recasting of the 1970s soul classic in an acoustic setting with the pulse given a sharp, double time-ish snap that contrasts smartly with the sultry beauty of the melody and harmonies proves to be a worthwhile piece of left-of-centre thinking.