I knew nothing of Smith until this self-issued double-CD arrived and I don't know a lot more now. It turns out he's a pianist and composer who has form as an exponent of Schoenberg's 12 note scale. Disc one's 13 tracks feature him working through a series of standards, most with just his trio, others with one or more of the added guests. ‘My Funny Valentine’ opens, the mood solemn in the Jarrett manner, with Barnes playing flute, then it's ‘Too Late Now’, also slow, heavily chorded and fragmentary, with the very sonorous Edmonds on swooning electric bass. ‘Yesterday’ follows, similarly restrained, again with Barnes, this time on clarinet sounding pristine and cool. While Smith's compositional interest in re-harmonising these august pieces is evident throughout and his rather deliberate concern for their treatment is only too apparent, one does long for a higher degree of animation and yes, zest. Smith is not given to swing, although ‘Black Orpheus’ does pick up a bit of momentum as does ‘Somewhere’, with Barnes back on flute. The second disc includes a further five trio pieces, and then comes a quartet of orchestrated songs, two with the divine Tina May, all this lushness followed by two tracks of solo piano. In effect, Illusions is a vanity or legacy project and why not? Certainly musical, skilled, for sure, with stabs at solo enterprise from Barnes, but an unlikely choice for this magazine's readers.