In case you're wondering (you can never be quite sure these days, can you?), the title isn't a po-mo joke: there was a first volume of Secret Spaces, released back in 1995, the year after Steve Plews won the Peter Whittingham Award for Composition. Apparently that disc is currently enjoying renewed interest in the Far East – hence, perhaps, this elegant if somewhat delayed sequel. The titles of the 15 Plews originals that comprise the disc suggest a certain existential starkness of vision – ‘Hope’, ‘Fear’, ‘Portrait of Ennui’, ‘Native Condition’ – and certainly ‘Wedding Satire’, with its ironic-sounding opening and grating strings, points to the leader's interest in the music of Shostakovich. On the other hand, the last seconds of ‘Hope’ could be a homage to Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea; Plews' love of both the jazz and classical canons, and the likes of Béla Bartók and Bill Evans in particular, is evident throughout. It's a handsomely conceived and produced disc – ASC was set up by Plews himself – and there's a sound design credit for co-producer Mike Langley.