British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed has long used her dual cultural heritage as inspiration for her music. Since 2011’s confident debut, Finding My Way Home, Ahmed has combined instrumentation like the darbuka drum, electronic samplers and horns to produce artful compositions that draw on Arabic quarter-tone scales as much as jazz improvisation.

Yet, it’s Ahmed’s latest, fourth record, A Paradise in the Hold, that most fully realises her distinct imagining of British-Bahraini jazz. Drawing inspiration from the folk pearl diving songs of Bahrain and traditional wedding music, the 10 songs on the album are some of Ahmed’s most high-energy and expansive.

Opener ‘She Stands On The Shore’ sets the tone with its plaintive trumpet melody that soon builds over the evocative Arabic vocals of singer Natacha Atlas. Referencing the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ahmed’s lyrics and expressive trumpet lines produce atmospheric texture before launching into the 10-minute odyssey of the title track. Sampling a performance from pearl diving singers, Ahmed soars through a keening solo to land on a propulsive percussion break led by the late drummer Martin France.

France’s work throughout the record is stellar, driving the frenetic polyrhythmic pace of ‘Her Light’ and the earthy groove of pearl diving standard ‘Though My Eyes Go To Sleep My Heart Does Not Forget You’, while ensemble percussion provides a moody, undulating foundation for Ahmed’s emotive soloing on ‘Into the Night’. The effect is immediate and engaging, producing one of Ahmed’s standout records in a genre entirely of her own making.