As the name suggests, this new quintet convenes seasoned avant-gardists from America (Wooley and Vandermark) and Europe (Dell, Raymond and Kugel). But rather than diving straight into a free-jazz/Euro-improv free-for-all, they’ve crafted a suite of collaborative original compositions inspired by the work of multi-instrumentalist and conceptualist Eric Dolphy. That connection is most apparent on the opener, ‘Around Town’, which struts straight out of the gate with a jaunty, oddball swing like a lost cut from Dolphy’s masterpiece Out To Lunch!, with Dell’s perky vibes channelling Bobby Hutcherson, before dissolving into a powerfully turbulent energy churn.

The rest of the tracks – most of them numbered iterations of the album’s title – approach the task in hand with more latitude. ‘Transition I’ begins with Wooley displaying his extraordinary extended technical chops with slobbering snuffles and whinnies, building to a rambunctious group tumble. ‘Transition IV’ emerges as a ghostly drone, eventually coalescing into insistent angularity.

While the instrumentation certainly lends itself to a homage to Dolphy’s most famous album, it’s also possible to discern echoes of Don Cherry’s mid-1960s quintet featuring Karl Berger on vibes. And, just like that group, even in the most abstract moments there’s a cogent sense of underlying structure and design.