The pandemic's impact on musicians' development will have been incalculable, and surely it has been most keenly felt by those eager fledglings just beginning to apply themselves to their professional careers. It's no mean achievement, therefore, that during 2020 young Dutch bass player and composer Nick Kerkhoff managed to pull together a band, a set of original tunes and the recording session that produced this album. His choice of collaborators was shrewd and saxophonist Jesse Schilderick and pianist Emanuele Pellegrini shoulder the bulk of melodic responsibility with apparent ease. Lest you should doubt his own technical credentials Kerkhoff gets in a proper show-off solo track – ‘Intro’ – and leads off other numbers like ‘Almada’ melodically, but it is his compositional voice that most strongly makes his presence felt. In that respect both the title track and the closing number ‘The Voice Of A New Generation’ show stylish promise, the latter's opening sax and drums duel/duet leading into a nicely constructed development seamlessly carried by Schilderick throughout. ‘Leaves’, an elegiac tribute to the bass player's late grandfather, is a more complex and considered composition that mostly works but is slightly marred by uneven mixing of the piano part. Overall the sound is fine, however, and the set suggests an emerging compositional talent that will develop over time.