When it’s good, listening to jazz electronica can be like one of those high-end tasting menus offering a cavalcade of original tasting morsels. Intelligent and creative sound design might serve up a compellingly resonant plonk, a hollowed-out whoosh, a grumbling murmur… sounds to be savoured for their freshness and judgement. Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang are, without doubt, master chefs in this respect and this latest album offers a rich diet of synthetic musical texture and tone.

Across eight tracks, the music ranges from the uber-machine war game soundtrack of ‘Minute Warning’ to the Bowie-esque electro-ballad of the title track (sung beautifully by Sweet Billy Pilgrim's Tim Eisenberg, it later returns as a transformed instrumental). The guest vocal appearance of soul-jazz veteran Nona Hendryx on ‘Legion’ proves an excellent pairing of her world-weary exhortation with a shuffling electro-pop/reggae back beat topped by Gianluca Petrella’s Studio One trombone.

Throughout ‘City Never Sleeps’ there’s a muffled reggae party going on next door while abstract sonics meander in the foreground. Eventually it does fall asleep, only to be rudely awakened by the multi-layered polyrhythms of ‘Seraphine’ which follows.

It's all carefully crafted stuff, as you would expect from Aarset and Bang, with each track’s clear identity enhanced by faultless sound design and pin-sharp production and the whole distinguished by Michelin Star-worthy tastefulness.