Roamer are an improvising Irish quartet who reside in Berlin, Brooklyn, London and Dublin; and they make a point of being in the same place especially when there’s an interesting project that resonates close to home. Lost Bees is their recording debut and it’s largely based on the poetry of prize-winning London-based Irish writer Cherry Smyth, someone the band have worked with on and off since 2017. Interpreting Smyth’s texts is the Dublin-born London-based 2016 Jazz FM vocalist of the year Lauren Kinsella of Snowpoet, Thought-Fox and Ruth Goller’s Skylla among others. Kinsella, who has a more extensive sonic palette than most of those calling themselves jazz vocalists, sees herself more an instrumental voice than in a conventional singing role. On the recording she demonstrates this with a text-based as well as wordless vocal: from extended technique that features clicks, hisses, and abstract baby-like gestures – sometimes in this context you could imagine she sounds something like a Bjork record if played backwards – through to non-verbal legato melodies occasionally here in unison with the saxophonist Matthew Halpin.

But there’s never a feeling that she dips in and out of these disciplines. Instead Kinsella is focussed on narrative, leaning on Smyth’s evocative imagery for substance while seamlessly threading together seemingly disparate improvisational approaches. For the rest, Halpin’s sax is an attractive blend of breathy playful old-school tenor and folky euro-jazz influences and guitarist Simon Jermyn provides the glue with an ambient-electric effects-laden rock/country-inflected guitar sonic and Jaco-influenced subtly funky grooving bass; that’s atmospherically haunting as well as both warm and resourceful. At times the darkly contemporary Irish folk-jazz sound echoes some of the work of the recently-departed Cathal Coughlan, as well as June Tabor and Christine Tobin.

A standout track is the more psych-folk lament ‘Haiku’ with post-production by cutting-edge Swedish bassist-producer Petter Eldh. These kind of mixed-discipline art music projects can often overstate the conceptual side of things, but this one is engaging and unpretentious.