Maltese guitarist Sandro Zerafa relocated to Paris in 2000, where he helped to found the Paris Jazz Underground collective. On this, his third outing as leader, he's joined by two fellow PJU members, Yoni Zelnik on bass and Olivier Zanot on alto sax. The result is 50 minutes of grittily elegant contemporary jazz. The quintet are very good at light-footed, loose-limbed dissonance, harmonically on the threshold of resolution but with the centrifugal elements refusing to be finally corralled for easy listening: try ‘Gravity’ or ‘Blurred Vision N.3’ for a taster. There's also a tendency towards sweeter balladry. Zerafa has been compared to Jim Hall; there are moments in ‘Fear of Falling’ when it sounds as though he's simultaneously channelling and deconstructing Django Reinhardt too. Pianist Laurent Coq pairs mathematical precision and imaginative playfulness on the likes of ‘Elation Now’. Of the nine tracks, eight are originals. The impressive set is rounded out with a cover of Jobim's ‘O Grande Amor’, which brings the disc to a rousingly romantic conclusion.