Brigitte Beraha's new quartet Lucid Dreamers started life as a trio for a performance at the QEH as part of last year's EFG London JazzFestival. Recorded live at Waterloo's Iklectik at the beginning of this year, the debut album sees the trio expand to a quartet, with the addition of pianist Alcyona Mick. I was a huge fan of Beraha's 2013 duo album with John Turville, Red Skies, not only for Beraha's compelling writing, but also for the vocalist's facility for generating mood and suspense – and these qualities are found in abundance on this exceptional recording. With its inventive juxtaposition of acoustic and electronic elements, the album opens with an extended wordless vocalise, before Bobby Troup and Leah Worth's ‘Meaning of the Blues’ surreptitiously seeps into your consciousness.

The music then seamlessly segues into Beraha's own ‘Orderly Ruin’ in which the introduction of an almost oppressive, monolithic rhythm creates an ominous undertone.

Whether contributing beautifully florid runs or powerfully chiming block chords, the addition of Mick is keenly felt in the outer-spacious ‘Disorderly Ruin’, while ‘Pandora's Box’ features Beraha in a captivating dialogue with George Crowley's tenor in a cyclical musical journey which explodes with ideas. The ghostly title track perhaps best displays the egalitarian nature of the music- making, with Beraha's voice folded into the overall texture, one of several layers all of which contribute equally to the overall timbral richness.