Thumbscrew’s roots are well documented, notably the influence of Anthony Braxton both in composition and performance. But the band have increasingly developed their own group sound and ethos. Wingbeats features even more of Fujiwara’s vibraphone which first came to the fore with 2022’s Multicolored Midnight. ‘Irreverent Grace’ finds the vibes spinning spells against Halvorson’s simply strummed chords while Formanek leads on warm toned bass.

Halvorson herself plays cleaner and simpler as has been her style increasingly over recent years. There are still those tonal gyres and gimbals, but in their sparser use they hit all the bolder. Her tightly composed ’Greenish Tents’ also features Fujiwara’s vibes, and the two entwine until they feel the same instrument.

But it’s the astonishing metric complexities that astound with this band. Even within a bar time signatures slip and slide. The title track eddies and whirls yet never loses shape. These are wing beats in harmony but never presume that the flights they lift you on are predictable. Just when we think we’ve got our heads round those tumbles and turns along comes the riot that is Mingus’ ‘Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk’. Who’d have thought we’d hear Halvorson in a blues slick mode, more Farlow than Frisell.