Words Unspoken is a natural heir to Surman’s Invisible Threads. As the titles suggest, this is music about the spaces between, of the unseen and unmeasured. The voicings are of course different across the recordings. Waring’s shimmer and suggestion remains from the trio and if Nelson Ayres' warm keys are gone, we are compensated by Luft’s deep lyricism and his orchestra of effects. The biggest difference is the patterning of Strønen’s percussion which is the glue that binds the others’ wanderings.

As Surman clocks up his 80th circulation of the sun, his sonorities remain consistent (the less charitable may suggest predictable?), his soprano entry into ‘Pebble Dance’ bird song clear after a lustrous intro from his colleagues. His baritone likewise retains its authority on the title track. It would be easy to argue that there’s a lack of tonal or indeed tempo variation across the 10 tracks. But that is precisely Surman’s sound world: the palette is not limited but contained, and we are left to discover our own resolutions.

We may have wished for more of Luft the soloist rather than colourist, though he finds some definition on the standout ‘Onich Ceilidh’. But why wish for that we don’t have when Surman’s gift to us yet remains a thing of beauty.