Why Russell recordings are as infrequent as the number 11 bus remains one of life’s mysteries: so now, more than ever, is a time to celebrate this largely unsung hero. Being a composer as well as master soloist, his songs have a dramatic shaping, and a rare sense of dynamics that give them a narrative arc that you don’t expect in the much-maligned world of jazz-rock. So what may appear superficially a rocker like ‘Shards Of Providence’ can move from a power-theme, to a Holdsworthian synthy meditation and on to a spectacular climax in one seamless stream. It helps that he’s got such simpatico pals as Salmins and Husband (particularly explosive on the ‘The Island’) on board, but it’s Jim Watson (who, like Russell, should have a far higher profile) who steps up to the plate: his organ solo lifts the crunching riff of ‘Way Back Now’, and he duets with a rare sensitivity on ‘Suddenly They Are Gone’, which out Beck’s Beck for lyrical melancholy. Throw in Rupert Cobb doing his Nils Petter Molvaer via Ligeti thang, and you have an album as rich in colour and mood as it is heart-stoppingly rocking.