More and more recordings are embracing postmodernism, most particularly in the use of collage. First pioneered by the modernists, but a technique postmodernism has made its own, these juxtapositions of seemingly incongruous elements create matrices of internal relations without a fixed configuration. So, step up VEIN and the multiple Grammy-nominated Norrbotten Big Band and Symphonic Bop, postmodernism writ large. VEIN, the smoothly efficient Swiss jazz trio, has been around for a dozen or so years, steadily gaining fans across Europe (they are now regular visitors to the UK), but Symphonic Bop, in both conception and execution, is surely their magnum opus. Nothing is as it seems, “signifiers” of different moods and styles change with Zorn-like jump-cut exuberance – ‘Fast Lane’ with its lightening interactions among the instruments or ‘Groove Conductor’, that blurs between funk to free, exemplify the rollercoaster energy and glee with which they set about their task. A lot happens in a short space of time on this album; maybe on first listening it might sound a little too smart arse for its own good, but further investigation reveals the work of sharp musical minds and an ensemble of talented musicians at one with pulling off this challenging tour-de-force.