Like a double cherry, this album has two parts delicately connected: vivid instrumentals, and songs that take a soul-jazz shape; coupled by an intention to tell stories. As We Stand is an expressive work, as if reading the personal diary of harpist Tori Handsley; confusion, reflection, love, playfulness and exasperation play out, while the musical intuition of Ruth Goller, Moses Boyd and Sahra Gure delineate compelling angles.

The harp is quite a statement and it's a tribute to Handsley's gutsy approach that she seeks aspects that plant it in the today without relying on digital effects. She embraces the harp's enchanting purity but doesn't shun her need to convey, what could be said are, frustrations at the state of the planet, as in the opening track, ‘Rivers of Mind’. Launched by an insistent drum solo from Moses Boyd, Handsley's rapid response of notes set a forthright tone. It's not easy to convey anger on a harp without the sense of an innocent animal being maltreated, but she has found devices, particularly repeated motifs and use of rhythm, to say whatever she needs to say.

‘Settling Into The Sun’ is a heartfelt, earnest inquiry that captivates when it turns a corner into the shadows. Here, bassist Ruth Goller's innate skill of seeking original, organic answers, works with Tori, and draws the track into resonant depths. Elsewhere Goller offers a steely weirdness, while Boyd intensifies tracks and injects grit, without ever losing his elegance.

The juice of this album is in the journeys the music takes. Sudden drops in pace, breaks, twists in direction all seem to mirror the process of thinking. This sense of what it means to reflect is deliciously realised by vocalist Sahra Gure as she feels her way through Handsley's lyrics in the three vocal songs. Her approach is often uncertain, to an extent naïve, but there is a disarming honesty that entrances, along with her delicate, amber tones. The title track is a joy as it moves through its moods, all along Handsley providing the drive; the music bursting with life as she soars or finding a a lute-like poignancy in simply-plucked strings. It brings the listener to a place where they can stop, and stare.