Vibraphonist Pascal Schumacher’s last release was a solo outing called Sol – or ‘Sun’ – and now he’s back with a complementary, if not positively antithetical, recording made with the Brussels-based post-classical ensemble Echo Collective and entitled Luna – or ‘Moon’. The string arrangements for Echo Collective give the disc a restrained, ruminative semi-lushness, while Schumacher sketches lines on top and in between on a variety of instruments: vibraphone, of course, but also synthesiser and others.

The compositions are suggestive of sound paintings of space travel or might represent a reflective soundtrack to keep you company as you sit in your garden at midnight gazing at the moon through a telescope. The densely percussive ‘Rhythmicon’ – named for Leon Theremin’s 1930s electro-mechanical instrument, sometimes dubbed the world’s first drum machine – is something of an homage to Steve Reich’s ‘Music for 18 Musicians’. Then there’s a solo piece for Schumacher and his vibraphone, ‘Nostalgia’, which is as hauntingly dreamy as the title might have you imagine.