Benjamin Franklin, founding father of the USA among other fripperies, reckoned that ‘Out of adversity comes forth opportunity.’ Ben never battled audio latency in an improvising band in the midst of a pandemic (although he did invent the glass harmonica) but his words resonate with this beautiful album from Playtime and guests.

Bored with lockdown, wanting to do something for their audiences and themselves, the playmates plunged into gigging live over the internet. It shouldn’t have worked but it did, their years of playing together allowing them to surmount the delay implicit in the technology.

Morse Code… traces this story, with band members narrating their relationship to the process. The aptly-monickered ‘Through Space Our Minds Can Still Touch’ was their first live recording. Then they reached out: In London, Laura Jurd and Byron Wallen differently elicited the spirit of ‘In A Silent Way’; a duo with Iain Ballamy is gentle grace, while the collaborations with Japanese musicians trapped in tiny flats burst with a break free energy.

Of course, the album is an ‘edited’ version of the music created. Through Phil Bancroft’s Myriad Streams (website) you can access whole sessions. Morse Code Through the Lights reminds us how resilience, collective effort and creativity can transcend the toughest times.