This is the second release from British ‘concept studio band’ According To The Sound, aka core duo, pianist Adam Parry-Davies and guitarist/programmer/synth player Patrick Case, supplemented by an exciting array of musicians recorded in the US. And it's the second to bear a title with a hyphen; in fact the first actually had two: Prism-a-Ning (a play on Thelonious Monk's ‘Rhythm-a-Ning’). Hyphens are to be encouraged, of course, as are hard titles and bits of titular wordplay that make you furrow your brow: In-Tension appears to reference frustrated intentions owing to Covid and – I'm assuming – tensions within the carefully plotted musical compositions and perhaps beyond resulting from those frustrated intentions. Clearly process is an important part of the story too.

So the nomenclature and press materials prepare you for a particular kind of listening activity and experience. It's nice to be able to report that, although clever and concept-heavy, the resulting music is a fun and gripping listen, any abstract theorizing matched with visceral delivery. Sweet musical reason emerges floated on a simple classical piano riff and a bed of strings from the free-jazz chaos of the opening of ‘Noise of Time’; you're never quite sure where the hazily trip-hoppy, then plain groovy ‘Heavy Smoke’ is heading. There's fine playing from the likes of Ambrose Akinmusire and James Carter throughout.