Bassist Lars Danielsson has a knack of forming great bands but it doesn't stop there – he somehow manages to realise the potential of his musicians in directions even they had not imagined, for example, the trio he led a few years ago with the then unknown Yaron Herman (that sadly never recorded) brought a focus and intensity to the young pianist's playing that was absent on his own endeavours for some while. Key to Danielsson's approach is his respect for melody, noting that, “If you think too much while you are playing, the narrative, the authenticity, essence of the music can be lost”. Take the track ‘Africa’ with its sense of shimmering movement and momentum, a musical journey that sweeps the listener along, its narrative flow underpinned by great musical clarity and concise logic. His ability to take a small musical motif and create something memorable, as in ‘Miniature’, which owes much to his respect for the primacy of melodic development within the narrative flow of the music while the more complex ‘Passacaglia’ evolves at the hands of Tigran's piano and gradually morphs into a vehicle for self expression for the band. Guest Mathias Eick is a remarkably rounded trumpeter, whether playing lead in the powerful electro/acoustic ensembles of Jaga Jazzist or with his own post-Miles experimentalism, here reveals his tender side with a beautiful tone and artful construction of line in duet with Danilesson on ‘II Bla’, one of the many unexpected album highlights.