Xenopoulos places himself firmly in the ‘straight-ahead’ stylistic category and has never concealed his admiration for Dexter Gordon and Hank Mobley, this showing every time he plays. This new group which has been out on the road recently stays broadly with that unfussy mindset and it’s a pleasing success. The co-leaders share the compositional responsibilities, with Edis contributing five out of their seven pieces, each evocative of a staging post in their journeys around this island, hence the title and the London Underground-like map on the album’s cover.

‘The Coast’, by Edis, is for his original North-East affiliations, and has a beautifully lucid exposition by the tenorist, with Edis crisp but cleverly expressive in his solo. It’s soprano on Edis’s ‘Lockdown London’, the keening sound and quiet feeling recalling the capital city’s ‘eerie silence’ even as Barford breaks up the beat. ‘Coming Home’ is ‘unashamedly romantic’ and is quite lovely, underlining Edis’ flair for shapely melodic ideas, the ever-alert King’s solo an extra adornment, the composer neatly cogent in his solo. Barford opens VX’s ‘Get Off My Lawn’ (don’t ask), a swinger with King and the drummer giving the tenorist the kind of vital springboard that he so much likes, Edis in similarly inspired form, the band riff and drum breaks the veritable icing on the thematic cake.

While there’s nothing overly turbulent or histrionic here, the quartet’s compatibly and their ease in performance is a delight. This epitomised by Vasilis’s jaunty flute on ‘Mikey’s Samba’, a tribute to Edis’s first car, a Nissan Micra!