New York-based Californian violinist, Sarah Bernstein, has worked with Anthony Braxton as well as various alumni of that maverick composer/improviser’s bands including cornet-player Taylor Ho Bynum and drummer Satoshi Takeishi. It’s a connection that makes perfect sense in the context of her own quartet, which combines cerebral composition, ludic puzzles and feisty improvisation with ease. The album’s name serves as a neat statement of intent, in fact, with the title track journeying from Kris Davis’ opening minimalist piano strategies, through Bernstein’s yearning expressionism and into the rolling yet controlled tumbling of Ches Smith’s drums. But it’s not all so conceptually driven. Elsewhere, Bernstein enjoys a more visceral sense of play, diving into solid, driving post-bop on ‘Cede’ and, on ‘Jazz Camp’, sketching a fractured, Downtown melodic hook with Stuart Popejoy’s throbbing electric bass ostinato providing enough momentum for her to let rip with wild, soaring stridulations, mixed with spoken snatches of original poetry. Plenty to savour here.