These four tracks from the SME, focal point of the British 1960s avant-garde, can be divided into two pairs. The disc is bookended by versions of ‘Familie’, both featuring the same 11-piece line-up and perhaps the earliest SME ensemble on such a scale. Apparently inspired by Japanese court music, the first half is semi-composed, the second half largely improvised; a (largely improvised) portion of an alternative take concludes the disc. The other two tracks, ‘Oliv I’ and ‘Oliv II’, come from the third SME L P. ‘Oliv II’ reflects the remarkable SME line-up of the day: Stevens and Watts plus South African bassist Johnny Diyani and vocalist Maggie Nicols, in her recording debut. ‘Oliv I’, meanwhile, is played by a nine-piece group put together by Stevens specifically for the recording, with Wheeler and Bailey taking prominent, but very different, roles, and Nicols singing in a language she apparently invented while working as a hostess in Tehran. Magnificent.