Anniversaries mean little musically, but there’s something reassuring in Thumbscrew marking a decade of collaboration with their seventh release together. Their writing grows deeper, their relationship more intimate, yet their musical ambition remains vivid and surprising. The twist of something new on Multicolored Midnight is the emphasis on Fujiwara’s vibes.

They flashed fleetingly across the party for the eponymous composer that was 2020’s The Anthony Braxton Project. But with Multicolored Midnight the vibes bring a whole new voice. For example, the splendidly monikered ‘Shit Changes’ features enigmatic vibraphone aided and abetted by Halvorson’s echoings, from which the melody elegantly coalesces. By contrast, Halvorson’s ‘Swirling Lives’ has a highly composed edge, setting up those glistening vibes, but as the trio play pass the parcel with the melody, the surprises keep coming. You wouldn’t want to play Texas Hold ‘Em with Halvorson, she keeps you guessing constantly before revealing her hand. Other standouts include Formanek’s rare outing into electronics on the aptly titled ‘Fidgety’, while ‘Future Reruns and Nostalgia’, if not overtly about the pandemic, unchains time and suspends us in a never/everland with its arco bass hoverings and again, a simple, irresistible vibes figure. Thumbscrew often play in difficult times. But then those are the times we live in. Here’s to future decades.