Saxophone warhorse Paul Dunmall has lately been enjoying a purple patch of working with talented younger players – most notably on the recent pair of albums by his Birmingham-based Ensemble.

But, whereas those two releases foregrounded concise compositions, here, while again assembling a relatively youthful crew, he dives headfirst back into the oceanic embrace of extended free improvisation with two half-hour pieces that demonstrate an old-fashioned concern with ebb and flow, tension and release.

On both, the string-rattling duo of double bassist Dave Kane and electric guitarist Steven Saunders exhibit big ears and a remarkably easy rapport, venturing into spontaneous two-headed gambits that summon moods both dreamy and terse.

But it's always Dunmall who leads the way. With his boundless energy and yearning tone, he instinctively knows when to turn up the heat, ascending skyward at the flick of a switch and irresistibly pulling his collaborators up into fearsome storms of fireball free jazz, with drummer Miles Levin throwing up huge eruptions of ecstatic crash and burn. Make no mistake, it's the real deal.