NASA space probe Voyager 1's chastening lesson in cosmic perspective when it sent a photo of Earth from almost four billion miles away, showing our planet as a pixel-sized speck, remains unlearned 31 years later.

The great astronomer Carl Sagan's speech in response, noting our truly tinpot tyrannies on this miraculous green mote, inspired these Johnny Hunter compositions, played at Sheffield's Live at the Lescar club with saxophonist Mark Hanslip and Seth Bennett's string quartet. Their contemplative chamber-jazz moves through phases of acceptance, repulsion and relief at what we're capable of, with titles from Sagan. ‘Everyone You Love’ begins as a swooning Balkan march, till strings ambiently hum and a hushed drum solo softens into stillness. Hanslip's tenor then offers straightahead jazz beauty, as if reaching for life in the darkness. He is tarter-toned on ‘Momentary Masters of a Fraction of a Dot’, as strings swoop and peck like Hitchcock's ravaging birds. Hanslip is a Voyager-like sonic beacon during the closing ‘Save Us From Ourselves’, which shows stately, redemptive faith in humanity, for all our selfdestruction and oppression. Thematic reach beyond earthly bonds shared with several recent UK jazz albums adds depth to this night of inherently intriguing, enigmatically hybrid, semi-classical sounds.