Over the course of seven albums, drummer Makaya McCraven has established a position at the forefront of progressive-minded jazz internationalists: from his base in Chicago he’s launched a series of collaborations with equally forward thinking artists around the world, not least our own Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, all accompanied by statements affirming his commitment to music as a vehicle for social change.

This is his eighth release, assembled from a series of live and studio recordings captured over the past seven years. McCraven is as at home in the studio as behind the drumkit and has a reputation as something of a beat scientist but here the emphasis is firmly on live playing: tracks are layered over his skittering drum patterns, gradually adding layers of texture from the strings, guitars, keys and vibes over quite simple, harmonically static chord progressions. A lot of the action is in the rhythms: Makaya likes odd meters, especially multiples of five, but makes them flow naturally under the easy-on-the-ear sonic washes. Brandee Younger’s harp adds depth, and Junius Paul on bass keeps things rooted under the simple melodies, emerging for a nicely judged feature on ‘High Fives’. McCraven’s press release describes his music as “poly-textural arrangements of post-genre, jazz-rooted 21st century folk music” - what emerges is a very accessible collection of mournful, ambient soundscapes reminiscent of the likes of Cinematic Orchestra, where the group sound is everything and the players’ individuality is subsumed into the rather soporific whole, so that Matt Gold’s powerful guitar solo on ‘The Knew Untitled’ comes as a welcome wake-up call.

It’s an album that creates and sustains its own unique atmosphere, there’s an admirable effort to avoid cliché, and everything is super hip.