Bassist Thomas, a stalwart of the Sussex and wider UK scenes who has released two albums as a jazz bandleader, here debuts as a soul singer-songwriter, digging deep into his taste for the jazz-inflected 1970s sounds of Donny Hathaway and Bill Withers, and their heir Gregory Porter.

Thomas has a serviceable soul voice clearly influenced by his idols, but this album's vocals are more valuable for the lyrics’ expression of a clearly heartfelt philosophy, aching to heal ecological and spiritual wounds. “Banish all the fear that holds us back,” Thomas asks on ‘Believe’. “Prayer is the struggle to overcome the doubt and the weakness.” This is coming from a deeper place than journeyman soul lyrics.

A studio band including ex-Loose Tubes saxophonist Julian Nicholas, producer-keyboardist Mark Edwards (The Cloggz, also a Nicholas outfit) and Jazzwise's Jon Newey on percussion are meanwhile given plenty of instrumental room to show their jazz roots. When ‘Unseen’ protests a “crying” land in a world that's “the devil's stage”, the musicians provide glowing warmth, and Nicholas's tenor and Jack Kendon's South African-style trumpet let the track lift off. On the Withers-like ‘Jewel’, Thomas tries to perceive “the weft from the weave”, but it's his own double-bass solo which truly touches the lyrics’ ineffability, its speech-like melodic phrases leaving him fully exposed to life's wonders.