Austrian trumpeter-composer Mantler makes music that can move from shadow to light in a moment. The mercurial moods of this accomplished and articulate 2-CD set are its strongest suit, and the stylistic breadth of the writing and arranging serves notice of an artist who has duly fulfilled the potential he showed way back in the late 1960s as a member of the Jazz Composer's Orchestra. In fact 2014's Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update saw Mantler revisit some of his previous work, and this latest offering is part of the new bottle-old wine aesthetic which enables him to draw something different from something previously stated. In times past Mantler's music has been performed by a jazz big band but here it is largely classical players in the foreground, augmented by jazz soloists. The results are as idiosyncratic as one would expect of a writer such as Mantler particularly on a piece like ‘Alien Suite’. While the shape-shifting nature of much of the material is impressive the emotional charge of the strings, which are icily seductive and seductively icy, is strong, and greatly enhanced by the interplay of Mantler and guitarist Bjarne Roupe, a skulking presence for much of the performance. Coda makes a very convincing case for Mantler's gifts as a composer, and stands as a work that has considerable appeal for the role of improvisers, including himself, who are woven into the scored materials in a highly disciplined way that does not make their individual flourish any less engaging.