James Mainwaring, a saxophonist-composer best known as co-founder of the Leeds-based Mercury nominated Roller Trio, takes a more diversely experimental approach on his new project Mycorrhiza. It’s a recording fuelled by a programmatic narrative that tests the boundaries between new classical, folk, electronica, jazz and free improv idioms.

Most of the first half could be a mini chamber version of Ligeti with slowly emerging long-note strings and eerily atmospheric sonic texturing. Improv emerges as bassist Michael Bardon, who also played on Mainwaring’s Tipping Point band’s 2015 release The Earthworm’s Eyeview, the leader’s sax and Steve Hanley’s drums punctuate the evolving sonic haze.

The disc’s narrative is centred on the saxophonist’s interest in the complex yet natural flow of ecological systems: the album title is the name of a fungi that’s a protective mechanism for communities of trees.

The album is indeed perhaps best heard as a programmatic suite with an evolutionary flow that starts from ‘Dawn’ with its field recording backdrop of bird calls gradually introducing more melodic and rhythmic elements with Ornette-ish sax driven tension, and elusive electronic noise courtesy of fellow Roller Chris Sharkey. Later on, it broadens out with passages of Phillip Glass-like chamber minimalism with perhaps a hint of King Crimson, African influenced folkiness and the vocals of Mainwaring and Aby Vulliamy, which recalls post-1990s lo-fi trippy indie rock. ‘Our Lungs are burning’ they sing, a warning that resonates through the project’s eco-aware centred storyline.