Delicately, thoughtfully flows the musical stream in Nicolas Masson's Travelers. But the surface is always noticeably rippled with perturbation and the undercurrents are strong. Reedsman Masson wrote the tunes, of which he says: “I wrote each song in relation to someone I've known. These pieces are not musical portraits of these people, but a reaction to their specific energy…”. In general, the moods those energies give rise to are sombre, pensive, full of impressionistic emotional turbulence conjured by Masson and his long-serving collaborators pianist Colin Vallon, bassist Patrice Moret and drummer Lionel Friedli – for the past 12 years they have performed together as Nicolas Masson's Parallels: “What's special about the band, I believe, is the alchemy between the four of us, what happens when we play together,” notes the leader. Opener ‘Gagarine’ combines a stuttering, jumpy rhythmic pulse and knitted-brow melodic invention; ‘Fuchsia’ is quietly ruminative, while ‘The Deep’ adds clangorous percussive accents courtesy of Friedli and his gongs and tom-toms.