The tight themes, rich sonics and compact improvisations of trumpeter Alex Sipiagin’s second release for the New Jersey-based Blue Room record label reflect continuity and mutual respect. Saxophonist Chris Potter played on the trumpeter’s debut release, Images, which was released in 1998, and has gone on to appear on nearly a dozen more. And though this is only the fourth album with this particular rhythm section – the first, Balance 38-58, was released on Criss Cross in 2015 – the band members have been rubbing shoulders on the New York jazz scene for more than a decade.

Sipiagin’s music gives contemporary modern jazz a left-field twist, which is signalled on ‘While You Weren’t Looking’, the album’s opening track. Here, fast boppish lines come with acerbic keyboard stabs and a richly harmonised bridge is declamatory. The track is one of two pieces written by Pat Metheny especially for the recording – he wanted “to give the musicians something to think about… something crazy, fast, complicated”, according to the sleeve. Metheny’s second tune, ‘When is Now’, a beautifully harmonised ballad, comes later in the set.

The body of the album is made up of Sipiagin originals, three of which were inspired by the trumpeter’s recent move to Italy. 'Clean Cut' bustles over edge-of-seat beats, 'Jumping Ahead' finds pianist John Escreet raising steam with two-handed clusters of sound and ‘Lost’ rumbles along while shifting meter and mood.

Three tracks, ‘Horizons 1,2 &3’ were through-improvised on the date and confirm the musicians’ close bond, technical prowess and control of sound. Potter and Sipiagin blend beautifully, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Eric Harland deliver dynamics, thrust and ebb-and-flow beats and Escreet combines the delicate textures of acoustic piano with eerie electronics and overdubbed synth.

The album ends with trumpet and sax duetting over the summery groove of ‘AVIA-tion’. Though even here, there are enough skin-tight tricky bits to keep the listener engaged.