Dunmall is becoming prolific lately, releasing a sequence of albums on the Sheffield label Discus. Here he’s in a less free-form state, more concerned with composition for what amounts to a big band palette, concocting a suite-like sequence of pieces that often swing joyously, but also delve into abstract electronic patterns.

Dunmall has surrounded himself with his Birmingham posse, including two keyboard players who between them range from acoustic and Rhodes pianos to synths and organs. Electric guitar also ups the amping, an instrument that Dunmall doesn’t include often, aside from his run of work with John Adams, principally in the 1980s and 90s.

Four horns lead the fray, but not acting so much as soloists but rather as section blowers, or simultaneous soloists, jousting with each other. Freedom is present, but much of the music revolves around organised unison, sometimes involving a Junior Walker stomp, harking back to the leader’s early soul-blues years.

Dunmall does occasionally solo, while his horn partners ‘breathe’ in cycles, and there are also fleeting showcases for trumpet and baritone saxophone. Electronics act as rebellious interference, while much of the writing dwells in the patch between Stan Tracey and Mike Westbrook. This is very healthy for Dunmall, penning in a different zone, as his freestorming side has certainly been already well-documented over the decades.