This impressive group's previous trio collaboration, the compelling Live at Belleville, served as a reminder to audiences around the world that Andersen was still one of the foremost bassists in jazz. It also won him the Prix du Musicien Europeen from the Jazz Académie in France, a singular recognition for an ensemble that somehow succeeded in exceeding the sum of its component parts. The quiet success the album enjoyed poses, of course, the question of ‘where do we go from here?’ The answer, it seems, is into the recording studio, but not just any studio, Jan Erik Kongshaug's Rainbow Studio in Oslo. Here the group are perfectly captured in what is largely a repertoire of Andersen originals, an excellent performance by Smith of Burt Bacharch's ‘Alfie’ and two Smith originals. There are also impressive readings of Andersen's ‘Reparate’, with a subtle watercolour wash of electronics, ‘Rossetti,’ and a shift of tone colours on ‘Raijin’, which Smith performs on shakuhachi flute. Throughout the creative burden rests fairly and squarely on Smith's shoulders as the ensemble's lead voice, and the way he handles it, with maturity and elegance of phrasing, speaks of his growing stature as an artist.