The highly accomplished composer and flautist Baum reissues this digital single, the title track of an excellent 2008 CD, following the positive response to the free download of ‘Song Without Words’ from Bridges. For those who haven't followed her work over the years Baum makes intricately constructed music with strong themes and effective counterpoint that nonetheless give space to soloists when the narrative calls for them. As one might expect given the title, ‘Solace’ is an introspective piece that builds carefully on pianist George Colligan's delicate, wistful chords, with the flute, sax, trumpet and French horn weaving astutely around the central harmony so that Baum can create her trademark ‘soft strength’, or assured, focused sense of light and shade. The resulting post-Wheeler swoon sits neatly between European chamber music and Eastern folk. There is savvy understatement and well-judged spikes of energy in the performance, which has the fillip of a truly imperious solo from trumpeter Ralph Alessi and an effectively nuanced one from Baum herself.