The line up for the band Hansu-Tori was originally assembled in 2008 by David Austin Grey while studying at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Grey balances his various talents very effectively between keyboards, composition, poetry and songwriting on his band's highly engaging debut An Improvised Escape. He's also a teacher and student of martial arts, which explains the band moniker: Hansu is a Korean term and comes from Taikwendo that means water and Tori is Japanese for bird. This might account for the music's tender poise and a meditative quality which infuses the recording. While influences cited in the sleeve notes range from Bruce Lee through to Abdullah Ibrahim, compositions also point to the influence of Miles Davis and Dave Holland, through to more contemporary references in the neo-soul/hip hop field. London-based singer Eliza Shaddad provides the vocals to a pair of well-written songs while lush, feelgood sax-trumpet harmonies are pitted against infectious grooves and harmonically searching solos from an assertive young band that includes trumpeter Sam Wooster and drummer Jim Bashford from the Birmingham Cobweb Collective. They all sound entirely at home with the leader's material and contribute to what is a really classy debut from a hot new talent.