This double CD wasn’t recorded ‘live’ – that is, it’s not the result of three musicians performing on a stage in front of a paying audience. But since all 20 tracks were laid down in a single day, most as first takes, it should probably be listened to in the spirit of a live album. It certainly has the spontaneity of one – Martin Speake, Mike Outram and Jeff Williams are very much at home in one another’s company, which brings an intimate ease to proceedings. The playing can be probingly minimal, as on the ballad ‘Keep in Touch’, or fuller and more aggressive, as on the moltenly inchoate ‘In Code’. Take a listen to ‘Secret Wood’ – it’s amazing what a really canny trio can get out of a fairly simple musical figure. Most of the tracks are originals, supplemented with the odd dip into the standards repertoire, notably the Richard Rodgers back catalogue (‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’, ‘If I Loved You’), and a foray into the operatic canon (Puccini’s ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’). Whether old or new, it’s all equally fresh – the sound of three fine musicians revelling in one another’s company.