This is David Virelles second CD for ECM in a recording career that dates back to 2008's Motion (Justin Time). It is without a doubt his most ambitious production, whose genesis goes back to the time of his 2012 album Continuum (Pi) where he wrote a series of pieces for solo piano and what he calls a “kind of a small piano concerto” incorporating strings, woodwinds, orchestral and Afro-Cuban percussion. A classically trained pianist who from the age of 13 has immersed himself in American jazz, most notably Cecil Taylor (“The very first time I heard his music I was in love it it”), Thelonious Monk and Andrew Hill, he has also been very conscious of his native country's culture, “and finding out what the foundation was, so that I could build on that, since I have always been interested in doing different kinds of things [in jazz] with the sounds of my culture” – a classic example of glocalisation. He was convinced that the musical possibilities of Cuban music had not been fully explored so broadened its traditional palette of sounds built around the various traditions of Cuban percussion. Gnosis therefore seeks to explore these aspects – the relationship between the piano and percussion instruments and a different sound palette using orchestral instruments to explore different images inspired by the history of Cuban music: “Everything comes out of that idea, not only Cuban music but also the development of the social dynamics of the country itself, that's where the idea of Gnosis comes from,” he explained. The result is a fascinating exploration of the interface between jazz improvisation and the Afro-Cuban tradition that is quite unlike our received notions based on driving brass of salsa bands and Afro-Cuban jazz. Although formalist in concept and often episodic in execution, Virelles' kaleidoscopic vision allows us to view Afro-Cuban jazz from a fresh perspective, an approach that promises much for the future, as much through his compositions as his improvisational wisdom, already so mature for a Generation Y jazz musician.